Stock markets celebrate a ‘stunning rebuke’: Trump says he will accept midterm losses—but don’t expect defeat to change him

It was a “stunning rebuke” to President Trump. That’s not Fortune’s opinion, by the way. The words “stunning rebuke”—and variations on that theme—were the choice of dozens of front pages reporting on the midterm election results today.

“Democrats Take Congress in Stunning Rebuke of Trump,” the WSJ said. “Party Flips Senate and House as Voters Deliver Stunning Rebuke to Trump,” the NYT declared. “Americans deliver stunning rebuke to Donald Trump as blue wave sweeps country,” the FT wrote. “Texas Turns Blue in Stunning Rebuke of Donald Trump, Elon Musk and GOP,” Bloomberg said.

France’s Le Monde originally headlined its story as a “stunning rebuke for Trump” but, perhaps sensing that the term was already overused, later changed it to “spectacular rejection” (you can see the original in the URL).

The results were so sweeping—the Senate stood at 54-44 in favor of the Democrats this morning, with the House at 228-129—that even Trump appears to accept that reality has changed around him. He told Fox News last night, “I think the Democrats did a good job, I really do, I think they did a good job. They fought hard.”

Crucially, Trump also said he would accept the results. He told the NYT he was “absolutely willing to accept those results” and would work with Democrats. “We’ll, you know, look forward to working with them … We’ll probably work something out.”

But don’t mistake this for a sign that Trump will be chastened and change course on the issues that cost him the election, such as the war, tariffs, and the price of gas. Chris Ruddy, the president’s friend and CEO of Newsmax, told the BBC this morning that although the results were “horrendous” for Trump, “he’s not a man that reflects. He’s got sort of two drives, fast and faster, in his gearbox. I think he’s going to continue to pursue his policies by executive order and there will be a lot of battles.”

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It was as if the recent carnage—with the S&P 500 down a grueling 2.64% over the past month—never happened. All of a sudden, the global markets are in a buoyant mood. The major indexes in Europe and Asia were up across the board this morning (with the sole exception of Japan’s Nikkei). U.S. futures were up before the open in New York. Even the price of oil declined.