Yesterday marked the first anniversary of Donald Trump's 2024 presidential election win, but his celebratory mood must surely have been soured by Republican losses in statewide and municipal elections.
“Happy Anniversary. On this day, November 5, one year ago, we had one of the greatest presidential victories in history,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social in typically self-effacing style. “Our economy is booming, and costs are coming way down. Affordability is our goal. Love to the American people.”
Inconveniently for him, Democratic wins in Virginia, New Jersey and California, and Zohran Mamdani's mayoral victory in New York City, show that many Americans are no longer buying the sales pitch from the hype-man-in-chief.
The billionaire developer campaigned on a promise of a “Golden Age” of American prosperity and vowed to bring prices down from day one. But seemingly everything, from rent to food, seems to get more expensive by the month. For many Americans, the only gold they see is Mr Trump's new fittings in the Oval Office.
It's always risky to read too much into election results in years without national polls. The ruling party is almost invariably punished and local voting patterns – such as in liberal and diverse New York – usually don't neatly extrapolate into broader trends.
What we can see, though, is that Democrats may have a pulse again as Mr Trump's popularity continues to slide. He likes to boast that he has never been more popular, but a CNN/SSRS poll released on Monday found he had only a 37 per cent approval rating.
It will be interesting to see if – or how – the Democrats, who have been flailing in the wilderness since Mr Trump took office in January, can parlay Tuesday's successes into broader momentum.
California Governor Gavin Newsom raised his national profile after winning approval for a redistricting measure to squeeze even more Democratic members of Congress out of the liberal state. In Virginia and New Jersey, two Democratic women – Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill – won the governorships. Democrat Ghazala Hashmi was elected lieutenant governor for Virginia, the first Muslim to hold statewide office there.
Mr Mamdani's win in the Big Apple, driven largely by the huge enthusiasm and turnout of younger voters, will present something of a conundrum for the Democratic Party, which failed to fully embrace the charismatic millennial even as it became clear he had a lock on City Hall.
Instead of welcoming Mr Mamdani and his populist vision of a more affordable New York, the scaredy-cat Democratic establishment buried its head in the sand as its own candidate climbed ever upwards in opinion polls. Even on election day, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York wouldn't say who he had voted for.
Former president Barack Obama, who also did not endorse Mr Mamdani, couldn't even muster a direct congratulations for his victory, instead issuing generic praise “to all the Democratic candidates who won tonight”.
My own view is that it would be unwise to try to view Mr Mamdani's victory as too much of a national bellwether. New York City is liberal, diverse and young, and Democrat victories by centrists in Virginia and New Jersey show there can be no one-size-fits-all approach for the Democratic Party.
Instead, it should stop obsessing about whether it wants to be centre-left or left of centre and take a page from Mr Mamdani's playbook by learning to present a clear vision that speaks to would-be voters.
Eye on the White House
White House confirms Trump meeting with Ahmad Al Shara in Washington
The White House on Tuesday confirmed that Mr Trump would host Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara in Washington next week, in an unprecedented visit.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the meeting next Monday is part of Mr Trump's effort to pursue peace in the Middle East.
“When the President was in the Middle East, he made the historic decision to lift sanctions on Syria to give them a real chance at peace,” Ms Leavitt said in response to a question from The National.
Syrian officials have said Mr Al Shara would meet Mr Trump to focus on post-war reconstruction and easing sanctions on Damascus.
It would mark the first visit by a Syrian leader to the White House and a further thawing of relations between the two nations after more than a decade of isolation.
What's Washington talking about?
Shutdown shenanigans The government shutdown, which has hobbled Washington, brought misery to hundreds of thousands of federal workers and could cause mass disruption of flights, is now the longest in US history. Today the shutdown marks 37 days since it came into effect on October 1. The previous longest government closure of 2018-2019 was 35 days.
Testing, testing Mr Trump said he had told the Pentagon to “immediately” begin the process of starting nuclear tests, ending decades of established norms. Experts warn new tests could accelerate a continuing arms race and result in rival powers improving the quality and quantity of their own atomic arsenals.
Dick Cheney dies George W Bush's vice president Dick Cheney died this week at the age of 84. One of the chief architects of America's response to the 9/11 attacks, he leaves a contentious legacy after the “war on terror” resulted in so many deaths around the world.
Spotlight: ICE raids provoke fear but foster fraternity between Chicago’s Arab and Latino communities
Recent immigration raids across the Chicago area have left many residents living in fear, but also more united than ever.
Over the past several weeks, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have conducted intensified operations across Illinois, detaining dozens of undocumented and immigrant residents.
The increased enforcement, which activists say disproportionately affects Latino and Arab neighbourhoods, has spurred co-operation between communities long familiar with surveillance and discrimination.
In a south-west suburb of Chicago, known locally as “Little Palestine”, lawyer Vivian Khalaf says she has been inundated with calls from terrified families.
“We get over seven or eight calls a day from clients who have cases that are ongoing being taken into detention by ICE,” she said. “This is the fear right now within the Palestinian community – being taken into custody, often times for no reason. We have had people with permanent residence cards being taken into custody.”
Read more from Nilanjana Gupta
Only in America
Feeling flush? Solid gold toilet goes to auction with $10 million starting price
A piece of art that is a solid gold toilet could sell for more than $10 million when it goes to auction next month, Sotheby's announced on Friday.
The fully functional, 100kg, 18k gold toilet – called America – was created by artist Maurizio Cattelan in 2016. It will go on the block on November 18, and Sotheby's said it will accept payment in the form of cryptocurrency.
Sotheby's described it as “one of the century’s most influential – and infamous – artworks”.
The starting bid will be determined by the price of the artwork’s weight in gold, rising or falling with the gold market until the auction. Currently, that means bidding would open at about $10 million.
America was installed in a bathroom at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2016. Visitors were encouraged to use the toilet, in its original function, and more than 100,000 people queued to experience what the museum called “unprecedented intimacy with a work of art”.
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