US President Donald Trump said he would accept the results of the midterm elections, but within minutes began assigning responsibility for the Republican Party’s historic defeat to the candidates he had backed.
Throughout the campaign, the 80-year-old president urged Republicans to vote as though “I’m on the ballot.” The strategy may have backfired: voters handed Democrats control of both the House and Senate.
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Mr Trump, however, showed little inclination to accept personal responsibility. In his first response, he argued that Republicans would have won by a “landslide” had his name appeared on the ballot.
“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“I am absolutely willing to accept those results,” he told reporters.
“We’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll, you know, look forward to working with them. We’ll probably work something out.”
Speaking to Fox News, Mr Trump predicted that Democrats would send legislation he regarded as “insane” to his desk, only for him to reject it.
“They’ll send over things that are insane, and I’ll veto them,” he said.
“And after a couple of months of vetoes, they’ll call and they’ll say, ‘how do we get this stuff done?’ And we’ll work together.”
Mr Trump also blamed the war in Iran for hurting Republican candidates, although he maintained that voters had supported his handling of the conflict.
“I think a part of it was Iran, but at the same time people understood the importance of what I’ve done with Iran,” he said.
A person holds a ‘Its Time For Something Different’ sign during an election night event
Later, Mr Trump offered a sharper indication of how he intended to respond to Democratic efforts in Congress, posting a photograph of his signature red MAGA baseball cap emblazoned with one word: “VETO.”
A bunker-like mood settled over the White House as Mr Trump and senior cabinet officials watched the damaging results unfold during a reception in the lavish East Room.
“The White House mood is defiant,” a White House official told AFP.
Some staff members ate takeout from the US restaurant chain The Cheesecake Factory, a pointed reference to remarks by Democratic former president Barack Obama, who had said renovations at Mr Trump’s White House were “looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”
‘Buckle up’
A White House official also questioned whether Republican candidates had been strong enough for the House and Senate races.
Many had received Mr Trump’s endorsement and benefited from his appearances across the country, including Republican Ohio Senate candidate Jon Husted, whose “ass” the president had praised in unusually enthusiastic terms.
“Candidate quality matters, and President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves,” the White House official said.
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Mr Trump later said he planned to “become a political pundit” and explain why Republicans had lost.
His first target was Greg Abbott, the loyal Texas governor defeated by Democrat Gina Hinojosa. Mr Trump argued that Mr Abbott would not have lost if he had not become a “RINO” — “Republican In Name Only”.
The central question now is how Mr Trump will respond to becoming a lame-duck president during the final two years of his second term, with Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress.
The White House signalled that Mr Trump was unlikely to retreat quietly.
Iran remained at the forefront of his thinking, amid widespread speculation that he could revive large-scale military action against Tehran — escalating a war that voters had clearly rejected.
“Anyone who voted Democrat today is going to have a serious case of buyer’s remorse when gas prices come down quickly when the Iran conflict is solved but they’re still stuck with a list of liberal extremist Democrats,” the White House official said.
The White House also appeared to hint at retaliation against Mr Trump’s political opponents.
“A final note here: regardless of how today plays out, President Trump’s resolve to stop the Radical Left is only going to become stronger. Buckle up.”
Mr Trump had already appeared tense before the first results were announced, using a series of angry social media posts to attack Fox News over its election coverage.
In one message published as the first polls closed, Mr Trump claimed the network’s ratings were “way down, not because of me, but because they are AGAINST me!”
