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Trump Blames Fox News, Greg Abbott and His Own Absence From the Ballot for Midterm Losses
Democrats took both chambers of Congress. President Trump assigned blame in a series of Truth Social posts after the results came in.
Republicans lost control of the House and Senate in the midterms, with Democrats flipping seven Senate seats and winning 258 House seats, a number the party hadn't reached since 1993. President Trump responded on Truth Social by blaming Fox News, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the fact that he wasn't on the ballot, while telling the New York Times he was "absolutely willing to accept" the results.
The posts
On election night, Nov. 3, Trump posted on Truth Social that he wasn't on the ballot and that Republicans would otherwise have won in a landslide. "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," he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
NBC News projected Democrats will control both the House and the Senate in January after flipping seven Senate seats. The network also projected Democrats will win 258 House seats, a number the party had not reached since 1993.
Blaming Fox and Abbott
Trump claimed without evidence in a Truth Social post that Fox News bore responsibility for the losses, according to Axios. "Fox News bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse," Trump wrote, in a post reported by TheWrap.
Trump also said on Truth Social he would become a political pundit on why candidates won and lost. "going to become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost!" he wrote.
He turned his attention to Texas, blaming Gov. Greg Abbott's loss to Democrat Gina Hinojosa on Abbott having become a RINO. "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 wrote.
Then: deals, and a VETO hat
Trump told the New York Times he was willing to accept the results. "absolutely willing to accept," he said. About an hour after telling Politico he wanted deals with Democrats, he posted a hat reading VETO.
Democrats will fall short of the two-thirds majority needed to override vetoes, per NBC News.
Musk weighs in
Elon Musk, who contributed a quarter-billion dollars this cycle, reacted to the losses on X. "Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time," Musk wrote in a post on X.
Musk also wrote, "Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now," according to NBC News. (NBC News)
An NBC News Exit Poll found Trump's disapproval rating at 62%.