Dawn columnist says US midterm result could test Pakistan’s ties with Trump

Democrats won control of both chambers of the US Congress in the midterm elections, a result Dawn columnist Khurram Husain says could complicate Pakistan’s close relationship with President Donald Trump. In a November 5 column, Husain argues that Trump’s weakened political position may leave Pakistan more exposed as Washington’s attention shifts; that is his assessment of possible consequences, not an announced change in US policy.

Husain writes that Democratic gains reached Texas and Kansas, and links the result to anger over living costs, tariffs and the war with Iran. BBC News reported that Trump himself cited Iran and the short-term consequences of higher gasoline prices when discussing the Republican defeat. CNBC reported that projections showed Democrats would take majorities in both chambers.

What Husain says Pakistan gained from the relationship

The columnist’s concern is that a president occupied by conflict with a newly empowered Congress may have less capacity for foreign policy. He says that could make Pakistan’s close association with Trump a liability. He also warns that the Iran conflict could escalate again, and says the nomination of Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize could overshadow Pakistan’s ceasefire role. These are Husain’s analysis and concerns; the election result does not establish that either a foreign-policy shift or renewed escalation will follow.

How the Iran war figures in the election aftermath

The competing public statements underline the uncertain political backdrop. BBC News reported that Trump said he did not regret launching the joint attack with Israel on Iran. CNBC reported Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s characterization of the US vote as a rejection of war. Those comments show how Trump and an Iranian official framed the result; they do not determine what either government will do next.

Husain places the current relationship in a longer history of US engagement with Pakistan. He compares it with periods in the 1960s, 1980s and 2000s, arguing that financial support in those eras stopped when Washington’s interests shifted. He says the present relationship has brought more photographs than money, a pointed contrast in his assessment of what Pakistan has received.

From that history, Husain argues that a US turn inward could push Pakistan to rely more on itself and lead regional powers to seek a new security arrangement. He presents both as possibilities, not settled outcomes. His argument is that Pakistan’s diplomatic gains from the ceasefire coexist with the risk of relying heavily on a US relationship shaped by changing political priorities.