Articles
Five Lessons From Trump’s Midterm Wipeout
The biggest takeaway from Tuesday’s results is how much we still don’t know.
November 4, 2026
Published March 20, 2026
Viewed across five decades, the structure of global power has changed less than commonly assumed. Maritime democracies continue to confront large, land-based authoritarian powers, while the United States retains a dominant share of global wealth, military capacity, innovation, and cultural influence. What has changed is scale: global interconnection, dual-use technology, and the diffusion of economic success have made power harder to control and easier to exploit. The result is not decline, but a world destabilized by the unintended consequences of victory.
Check out more from Stephen Kotkin:
- Read "The Weakness of the Strongmen" by Stephen Kotkin here.
- Watch "Five Questions for Stephen Kotkin" from Uncommon Knowledge here.
- Watch "Three Historians Debate the Era of Trump" from Uncommon Knowledge with Stephen Kotkin here.
Learn more about Stephen Kotkin here.
Recorded on August 14, 2025.
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The opinions expressed in this video are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University.
© 2026 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.
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Stephen Kotkin
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