---
title: Lame Donald Duck President?
description: During Donald Trump’s first administration, when I worked as a political adviser to the US State Department in Scotland, American elections were approached with trepidation.
image: https://truenorth.scot/hubfs/shutterstock_1081476917%20(1).jpg
---

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[Andrew Liddle, Head of Government Relations](https://truenorth.scot/news/author/andrew-liddle-senior-advisor)  Nov 4, 2026, 3:52:10 PM

# Lame Donald Duck President?

During Donald Trump’s first administration, when I worked as a political adviser to the US State Department in Scotland, American elections were approached with trepidation.

Aware that President Trump was about as popular in Britain as HMRC, traffic wardens or cold callers, we frequently concluded that the most diplomatic contribution to US-UK relations was not to celebrate an occasion on which his MAGA Republicans might triumph.

Last night, my former colleagues finally need not have worried.

Democrats swept to control of both houses of Congress, delivering a stinging rebuke to the President. Central to that verdict was Trump’s war in Iran, which has driven up consumer prices, particularly energy costs, compounding Americans’ frustration with the cost of living.

The result will severely constrain Trump’s domestic agenda. Legislative priorities now face a hostile Congress, while even his administration’s enthusiasm for AI data centres risks being rolled back amid growing local and state political opposition.

Yet this does not necessarily mean a quieter White House. Foreign policy is likely to move further centre stage, for two reasons.

First, it remains an arena in which presidents enjoy considerable autonomy, even under divided government. Second, it offers Trump an opportunity to reassert control of the political narrative and pursue the historic legacy – ballroom and reflecting pool aside - he so clearly craves, for better or worse.

For Scottish and UK businesses, the message is that political gridlock in Washington should not be mistaken for stability. On energy, trade and international security, Trump's decisions will continue to reverberate far beyond America's shores.

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