Trump’s Tone Changes After Midterm Election Defeat
The Democratic Party has won the United States midterm elections. Republican President Donald Trump expressed markedly different reactions to the result within the space of just two days.
According to results from the 3 November midterms, the Democrats were projected to control at least 54 seats in the US Senate, while Republicans held only 44. In the House of Representatives, the number of Democratic seats surged to more than 250 of the 435 seats — the party’s strongest showing in two decades.
Trump initially accepted the results and congratulated the Democrats on their decisive victory, which gave the party control of both the House and Senate. He even offered rare praise, saying the Democrats had done a “good job”.
Trump also acknowledged that the war with Iran may have contributed to the Republicans’ defeat. However, as AFP reported on Wednesday (4 November), the 80-year-old president refused to take personal responsibility for an outcome that would reshape the final two years of his term, seeking instead to shift the blame to his fellow Republicans.
“Look, I’ll say this: congratulations to the Democrats. They’ve done a good job,” Trump said in a telephone interview with FOX News Democracy 26.
“They’ve been looking forward to this for 11 years, and they finally got it. But I don’t consider this a blow directed at me,” he said.
Such praise was highly unusual for Trump, who during the midterm campaign more often labelled Democrats with terms ranging from communist to Islamist.
Trump reiterated that, unlike after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, he accepted the results this time and was prepared to work with the Democrats, who would now control Congress.
“I can work with them on a lot of things,” he said.
At the same time, Trump warned that he was ready to use his executive powers to veto any Democratic legislation whenever he considered it necessary.
“They could put forward, let’s say, 50 great bills that they’re proud of, and I’ll send them back with a special stamp — ‘veto’,” the US president said.
Trump also admitted that the prolonged conflict with Iran had affected the midterm results. Polls before the election indicated that voters strongly disapproved of the war and the resulting rise in oil prices.
“I think one of the factors was Iran, but, on the other hand, people also understand the importance of the steps I’ve taken regarding Iran,” Trump said in the Fox News interview.
Despite his conciliatory tone towards the Democrats, Trump did not extend the same courtesy to his own party. In a separate post on his Truth Social account, he claimed Republicans had lost because he had not stood for election.
“My name wasn’t on the ballot, and if it had been, we would have won BIG!” he said.
Two days after the midterms, however, Trump returned to his trademark combative tone. As AFP reported on Friday (6 November), he alleged that the election had been rigged.
“Our elections are so rigged, you wouldn’t believe it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday (5 November), local time.
His anger appeared to intensify as Democratic victories mounted, including the possibility of an unexpected Republican defeat in Mississippi, one of the party’s strongest bases. Scott Colom, the Democratic candidate, who is Black, was on the verge of an unexpected victory over the Republican incumbent in the state’s Senate race.
In Alaska, where the Senate result had yet to be decided, the Republican incumbent was trailing.
Trump, angered by his party’s losses, also linked a fall in US share prices on Thursday (5 November) to the Democrats’ midterm victory.
“The stock market is down today because the Dumocrats had a big win on Tuesday (3 November) — So sad, you only have yourselves to blame!” he wrote on Truth Social after US markets closed, using a derogatory term for the Democrats.
Trump also vented on Truth Social, repeating that his presence on the ballot would have delivered a sweeping victory.
“I WAS NOT ON THE BALLOT. IF I HAD BEEN, WE WOULD HAVE WON BIG!” he wrote.
This year’s midterms involved elections for all 435 House seats and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats, as well as governorships and other local offices.
In his online tirade, Trump also targeted Fox News, a prominent US broadcaster known for its support of him and the Republican Party. He blamed the network for inviting former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, whom he called “the worst mayor in history”, onto one of its programmes.
“Fox News bears responsibility for this loss because it keeps featuring the opposition side of the Dumocrats, and even worse,” he said.