United States President Donald Trump has dismissed suggestions that his leadership and policies contributed to Republican losses in the midterm elections, instead blaming the party’s candidates for failing to inspire voters and mobilise support.
The results, which saw Democrats take control of both chambers of Congress — the House of Representatives and the Senate — on Tuesday, have raised fresh questions about Trump’s political standing and the direction of his administration for the remainder of his term.
Although members of both parties viewed the outcome as a possible rejection of Trump’s record in office, the President rejected the suggestion that the results represented a personal political setback.
“But I don’t view it as a hit on me,” Trump told Fox News during a live phone interview.
“We’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency in terms of the economy, in terms of all the things that we’ve done.”
Trump argued that the Republican losses were largely the result of individual candidates’ poor performances rather than dissatisfaction with his administration’s policies, including the war in Iran and tariffs that have contributed to rising prices.
He also criticised what he described as favourable media coverage of Democratic candidates, particularly on Fox News, while admitting that the election outcome came as a “little surprise”.
“I thought they’d do better,” he said, referring to Republican candidates.
The President later attributed the results to a “mood in the air” but maintained that his administration would continue pursuing its policy agenda despite the Democrats’ gains in Congress.
The elections followed weeks of campaigning by Trump, who travelled to Republican-leaning states to rally support for party candidates. During the campaign, he urged voters to “pretend I’m on the ballot” to encourage greater turnout.
However, the strategy failed to produce the expected results, with Trump insisting that Republican candidates had not done enough to attract voters to the polls.
“They just didn’t inspire the people to get out and vote,” he told Fox News.
“And I wasn’t on the ballot. If I was on the ballot, they would have got out.”
Among the defeated candidates were Darline Graham in South Carolina, Ken Paxton in Texas, Michael Whatley in North Carolina and Mike Collins in Georgia. All had received Trump’s endorsement, with some of his backing reportedly going against the preferences of other Republican leaders.
Trump, however, did not acknowledge any responsibility for his role in selecting and endorsing the candidates, instead defending his decision to support Paxton over incumbent Texas Senator John Cornyn.
“I had no choice,” he said.
“When it wasn’t fashionable, he kissed my ass.”
In a post on his Truth Social platform shortly before midnight, Trump indicated that he intended to publicly examine the factors behind the Republican Party’s poor performance.
“I’m going to become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost!” he wrote.
He subsequently took aim at Texas Governor Greg Abbott, describing him as a “Republican in name only” and accusing him of returning to a political strategy that had previously failed.
“He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty!” Trump wrote.
However, in an interview with Politico around the same period, the President struck a more conciliatory tone, saying he was not interested in assigning blame for the election outcome.
“I don’t want to blame anybody,” he said.
“I just want to say, you know, it was a very interesting period of time. I watched with great interest, learned from it.”
Trump also expressed a willingness to work with Democrats, who will now wield greater influence over legislative decisions in Washington.
He said he had already spoken with some Democratic politicians, although he did not disclose their identities.
“You know, I have a lot of friends that are Democrats. Believe it or not, I’ve already spoken to some of them,” he said.
The President indicated that he was open to finding common ground with the opposition party. However, similar promises of bipartisan cooperation following Republican losses in the 2018 midterm elections yielded limited results.
Meanwhile, Trump dismissed suggestions that he regretted his decision to launch the war in Iran, an issue some Republicans have identified as a possible factor behind the party’s disappointing electoral performance.
“I don’t think about it. I did the right thing,” he told The Wall Street Journal when asked whether he regretted the military action.
“I would have done it again.”
