The extraordinary results in the US midterm elections have exposed just how risky Australia’s approach to US relations has been and left the country on the outer, according to international relations expert Dr Emma Shortis.
By Tegan George
Mon 9 Nov 2026 12.29 AEDT
Photo: X/@RichardMarlesMP
The extraordinary results in the US midterm elections have exposed just how risky Australia’s approach to US relations has been and left the country on the outer, according to international relations expert Dr Emma Shortis.
American voters turned out in record numbers to send a clear message to the Trump administration, with Democrats winning both the Senate and the House and securing control of Congress for the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency.
“This is a generational, seismic, historic shift in American politics,” said Dr Shortis, director of The Australia Institute’s International & Security Affairs Program.
But she said the result laid bare the risks of Australia’s narrow diplomatic approach to the United States.
“I think the first thing I’d say is that this just extraordinary result … exposes how pathetic and wrong-headed the Australian government’s approach to the Trump administration was,” she said during a special episode of the Australia Institute’s After America podcast.
“This commitment to cosying up to the Trump administration and focusing on just Trump and a few people around him.”
She pointed to Defence Minister Richard Marles’ relationship with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who he publicly described as his “good friend” in May.
Dr Shortis said Hegseth could now become a scapegoat for the war in Iran.
“He’s [Trump] musing about replacing Pete Hegseth, putting the blame for Iran on him,” she said.
“Meanwhile, the new Congress will probably go after Hegseth and try and impeach him, and they may well succeed.”
“I do think it’s going to get really messy.”
She warned President Trump was more unpredictable than he had been in a long while.
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“We know Trump stews on things. And as he feels increasingly isolated, increasingly cornered, increasingly weak, he’s going to get angrier and more resentful, I think.”
Despite Trump having another two years in office, Dr Shortis said the results were clearly “a repudiation of Trump and Trumpism and everything it represents”.
“They’ve elected a whole new generation of vibrant young leaders who are really committed to getting shit done.”
But she warned the Democrats’ resurgence could expose a significant weakness in Australia’s relationship with Washington.
“There’s this ideological alignment, but there’s no relationship.”
“That generation of leadership will be aware that in their time of greatest need, when American democracy was under attack, Australians went missing.”
Dr Shortis said Australia now risked being left behind as the US political landscape changed.
“They’ve missed, or might miss, what is potentially an enormous strategic opportunity for Australia in the way that American politics is transforming. We’re not a part of it … we’ve put ourselves outside of it.”
While Dr Shortis believes Australia can “absolutely recover”, she said it would require rebuilding diplomatic relationships that had been neglected.
“Seizing this moment, this opportunity, requires the building of a whole new diplomatic capacity,” she said.
“We’re entirely capable of it. But it also requires the recognition that we need to do that. And I’m not sure that’s there.”
