After the US midterm rout of Trumpism, the world struggles to trust America again

LONDON (AP) – For Joe Reeve, the midterm afterglow faded fast.

Key points

• What everybody's learned, Reeve, 29, the husband of a Ukrainian, remarked a day afterwards in an interview, is that America's system does allow for these wild swings.
• Voters, Reeve saw online, had flipped control of both houses of Congress, handing the power to check the president to his rival Democrats.
• But a deep and profound distrust of the United States had survived the vote, too.

In practice, the London startup founder was among the wave around the Trump-weary world awakening to the stunning news that Americans had sharply rejected President Donald Trump's fist-in-the-eye stewardship of the United States that had began a war with Iran, forged no peace in Ukraine or the Mideast and produced gas and food so expensive.

Voters, Reeve saw online, had flipped control of both houses of Congress, handing the power to check the president to his rival Democrats. American democracy, 250 years on, had survived the Trump era.

But a deep and profound distrust of the United States had survived the vote, too. And from national leaders to aspiring American immigrants, no one seemed confident that change was afoot.

"What everybody's learned, " Reeve, 29, the husband of a Ukrainian, remarked a day afterwards in an interview, "is that America's system does allow for these wild swings. We all know, now, that America has an ability to rotate on a dime and spit in our faces."

Taken together, the developments around after the US midterm rout of Trumpism, the world struggles to trust point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.