President Donald Trump on Tuesday at points lashed out, made excuses and appeared resigned after Republicans suffered resounding losses in the midterm elections.
In some of his first public remarks following the Democrats’ victories, Trump said in an interview on Fox News that he was “a little bit surprised” by the results.
“I thought we would do better,” Trump said. “We had tremendous rallies, thousands of people outside let alone inside that couldn’t get in.”
In other remarks, Trump put some of the blame on Republican candidates and high gas prices from the war in Iran — and also said he was willing to work with Democrats.
“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Trump posted on his social media platform shortly after Democrats were projected to take control of the House.
During a flurry of campaign stops across states and districts he won handily in 2024, Trump had implored Republicans to vote as if he were on the ballot.
“But they didn’t agree, and they didn’t like the candidates in most cases, just one of those things,” Trump said a phone interview with Politico. “There were plenty of people elected too, but, you know, not enough.”
Trump played an outsized role in several key races, such as the Texas Senate race, where Trump endorsed Ken Paxton over incumbent John Cornyn in the GOP primary, and in the special election in South Carolina where Trump endorsed Darline Graham for a full term to fill her late brother Lindsey Graham’s seat.
Both Paxton and Graham were projected to lose their races on Tuesday.
Asked if he thought there were candidates he thinks didn’t do enough, Trump said: “I don’t want to blame anybody. I just want to say, you know, it was — it was a very interesting period of time. I watched with great interest, learned from it.”
After results rolled in showing that Democrats would take the House and then later the Senate, Trump used his social media platform to lash out at the incumbent Republican governor of Texas, who had lost his bid for a fourth term.
“If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost,” Trump said in one of the posts, using the term for “Republican in Name Only.”
“He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty,” Trump added.
Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa was projected to defeat Abbott, who was running for his fourth term.
In his initial set of remarks, Trump said he would work with Democrats — but also emphasized his ability to veto legislation.
In the Politico interview, Trump said he was willing to work with Democrats to “make sure things go well for our country.”
“I’d consider doing whatever I think is appropriate and good for the country,” he told Politico when asked if he would consider striking an immigration deal with Democrats.
However, in another post on his social media platform on Tuesday night, Trump posted a picture his signature red hat with the word “VETO” displayed across it.
Ahead of the results, Trump had projected confidence that Republicans would defy the polls but said that he would be “Mr. Veto” if Democrats were to regain control.
Speaking to Fox News, Trump said Democrats are “in control, but they’re really not in control because they can send over, you know, 50 different great bills that they’re all excited about, and I send them back with a nice stamp veto.”
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