U.S. election results, a sharp setback for Trump, draw reaction from around the world

The Iranian regime was quick to label the resounding losses for President Trump's Republican Party in the midterm elections as evidence of American voters rejecting the costly war he launched with Israel more than eight months ago. 

Spain's leader called it a sign of a global, right-wing populist "wave" crumbling, and Russia acknowledged that it "could complicate relations with the U.S."

Below is a look at those statements and other reactions from foreign leaders and figures, including some hopeful leaders as elections loom in other countries.

Iran

A statement attributed to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Wednesday made it clear that Tehran is not expecting the outcome of the U.S. elections to change Washington's approach more than eight months into its war with Iran:

"If there are still people who harbor even the slightest hope for a change in behavior or for party and factional shifts within the system of domination, or who believe that by making concessions to America they can dissuade it from hostility toward the Iranian nation, they are gravely mistaken," the statement published on Khamenei's official website said.

Earlier, Iran's chief negotiator said the results reflected Americans' rejection of the war with his country.

"Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message," Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a post on X. He cited the increased cost of living, or "conscience," as two possible reasons for the widespread Republican losses.

"If the U.S. govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare," Ghalibaf added as a warning.

Russia

In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he hoped President Trump would still be able to "continue his peace-making efforts" in the wake of the U.S. elections.

A new round of working-level talks between Russia and Ukraine, brokered by the U.S., is scheduled to take place Nov. 10-11 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Mr. Trump has pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hard this year to accept a peace deal that many argue would strongly favor Moscow, with Kyiv likely having to allow Russia to maintain control over some of the territory it has occupied in Ukraine during the grueling four-year war.

Several previous rounds of U.S.-brokered talks have yielded prisoner exchanges, and a recent local ceasefire credited to first lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo brought calm to one southern city occupied by Russia, but there has been no indication that Putin is prepared to abandon his demand to unilaterally seize Ukrainian territory as part of a deal to end the war.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov noted Wednesday that Moscow has long had strained interactions with Democrats, saying the U.S. party's "core approach to relations with Russia is extremely negative."

Ryabkov said Russia's foreign policy would not be influenced by the election results, and its stance on Ukraine in particular would not change.

There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine's government to the U.S. election results.

Spain

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, among the most vocal European critics of the war with Iran and other Trump administration policies, welcomed the results, saying in a post on X that Americans had "voted against policies that only impoverish. Against hatred. Against sexism."

Sanchez, who will face his own country's electorate in a Nov. 29 election, called the U.S. results further evidence of a global right-wing populist wave crumbling, and he said he believed a similar result would follow in Spain.

"It happened in Brazil. It just happened in the US. And it will happen soon in Spain," he predicted.

European Union

Top European Union diplomat Kaja Kallas voiced hope on Wednesday she that the new U.S. Congress would increase support for Ukraine and ramp up pressure on Russia with Democrats now in charge of both the House and the Senate.

Kallas said Europe and the United States "are much stronger together" in any efforts to push Russia to end its full-scale invasion.

European Parliament Vice President Christel Schaldemose, in an earlier post on X, called the election results "wild."

"Not because everything now changes for the better, but because it could benefit the support for Ukraine, the green transition, and relations with the rest of the world," she said, adding that the EU "must continue the course of standing stronger and standing on its own two feet. That's not up for debate."

United Kingdom

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham's reaction to the walloping doled out to President Trump's Republican Party in the U.S. midterms was largely apolitical.

"President Trump has accepted the results, and I feel the world has an opportunity now to unite around the issue that is affecting us all, and that's the cost of living," Burnham told reporters in London on Wednesday, adding that prices could not be reduced until the U.S. war with Iran "is resolved."

South Africa

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. election results would "introduce a new era in world relations."

"We have seen that the Democrats have taken control of the Senate and of the House, and the people of America have spoken," he said. 

The Trump administration has had tense relations with South Africa, sanctioning officials it accuses of allowing the persecution of the country's White Afrikaner population and inviting its members to apply for refugee status in the U.S. — an opening that some 17,000 have sought to take advantage of.

Mr. Trump has alleged that Afrikaners face a "genocide" in South Africa. In a tense Oval Office meeting last year, he confronted Ramaphosa on the claims, showing him a video that spotlighted murders of farmers in the country.  

The claims, long pushed by Elon Musk, have been strongly disputed. A 60 Minutes report in February featured Afrikaners who rejected the notion that they are facing a genocide and said murders on farms were linked to a broader crime problem in South Africa that harms people of all races.

Germany 

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Wednesday that he expected cooperation between Europe's single largest economy and the U.S. to become "broader and perhaps more interesting" with the Democrats now in control of the House and Senate.

On U.S. support for Ukraine amid Russia's ongoing full-scale invasion, Wadephul said he was optimistic that both parties in the U.S. Congress would now engage more with each other to boost backing for Ukraine's government.

France

French Economy Minister Roland Lescure declined on Wednesday, during an interview with the BFM television network, to predict whether President Trump would "accept" the rebuke by American voters or stick to the policies widely perceived as having precipitated the midterm Republican defeat.

"Either he decides to rise above the fray — acknowledging that changes are necessary, particularly regarding gasoline prices, which directly affect people — and, I might add, he tones down his international involvement; or he does not," said Lescure, adding that it was "something we will need to keep an eye on in the coming days."

Norway

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere on Wednesday called the U.S. election results "a powerful political signal about a change of course among American voters."

"Voices are now emerging in American politics that are closer to us than the president and the administration have stood for, for example on climate and environment, and in foreign policy and development aid policy."  

This article will be updated with additional international reaction.