FRANCE/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Donald Trump heads to Paris on Friday [11-10-18] to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the truce that ended World War One, surrounded by more than 100 heads of state, all of whom have followed with intense interest the outcome of Tuesday’s congressional midterm elections in the United States. And not everyone might have liked what they saw. Only a handful of true autocrats were ever likely to be among those eager to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the American president or celebrate what he called ‘a tremendous success’ in Tuesday’s vote. Many world leaders had likely hoped to be assessing how wounded he might have been. Now they are probably trying to assess what their next steps should be…Spin it as they might, each world leader arriving in Paris will be waiting to see just how the split outcome of the crucial midterms will affect Trump’s attitude toward them individually and the world collectively. What they find may not be exactly the attitude most had been seeking.”
–David A. Andelman, “Commentary: In midterms, a cautionary tale for Trump,” Reuters, November 8, 2018