President Donald Trump suffered a crushing defeat in Tuesday’s midterm elections after Democrats seized control of both the House and Senate, according to projections by CNN, CBS, ABC and NBC. Trump will therefore spend the final two years of his term facing an opposition-controlled Congress, with the new Congress set to convene next January.
Within the Republican Party, one factor tops the list of reasons for the loss: the war on Iran. In interviews CNN conducted with more than a dozen of Trump’s aides, advisers and party officials, they said Trump’s decision to launch the war in February derailed months of election preparations and drove up fuel prices. “A lot of people don’t know why we needed that,” one presidential adviser said, while a Republican strategist concluded, “Honestly, there is only one person to blame.”
“A little surprised”
Trump followed the results from the White House and called Fox News during its election-night coverage. Asked about the performance of Republican candidates, he said: “I was a little surprised. I thought they would do better.”
The figures showed the scale of the blow. According to MS NOW, Democrats won at least seven Senate seats from Republicans, who had held a 53-47 majority, and secured at least 245 of the 435 seats in the House. In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers, becoming the first Muslim American elected to the Senate. Senator Susan Collins also lost in Maine, while Republicans in Texas lost both a Senate seat and the governorship, something Democrats in the state had not achieved since 1994.
In the same call, Trump said the people who count the votes were more important than the candidates themselves, without pointing to any specific wrongdoing: “The people who count the votes are much more important than the candidates.”
Fox News in the crosshairs, and a “veto”
Hours later, Trump turned against the channel he had called, writing on Truth Social that Fox News was responsible for the losses because it regularly hosted Democratic opponents. He criticized former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s appearances on the network. Trump then posted a picture of a red hat bearing the word “VETO,” signaling his readiness to block legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress. On election day, he had told CBS that he would use his veto and his “tremendous powers” if Democrats won.
But his tone appeared softer in an interview with The New York Times. “I’m totally prepared to accept these results,” he said, adding, “We’ll work with the Democrats.” He attributed the loss to the absence of his name from the ballot.
Even on the night of his defeat, Trump returned to the subject of Greenland, which he had made one of the main goals of his second term, saying: “Greenland is three times bigger than Texas, and we got it.”
The map turns blue
A county-level analysis by The New York Times showed the breadth of the shift. In counties where nearly all the votes had been counted, the vote moved toward Democrats by an average of 16 percentage points, compared with a five-point shift toward Republicans in the 2024 election. Even in Tennessee and Kentucky, where Democrats lost, the shift toward them reached 18 points.
According to an exit poll conducted by SSRS for a group of U.S. media outlets, 70% of voters wanted Congress to impose greater oversight of the president, while half viewed the election as an opportunity to rebuke him. Through the House, Democrats will be able to block legislation and open investigations into the war on Iran, immigration policies and corruption allegations. Through the Senate, they will be able to block the confirmation of judges and senior officials. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the MAGA movement led by Trump was now “in flight from sea to shining sea.”
Videos: Fox News / social media. Photos: Truth Social, The New York Times
