Election night did not go President Donald Trump’s way. As the results trickled in from across the country, critical race after critical race went Democrats’ way. And pretty soon into the night, it was clear that Republicans would not only lose the House but also their grip on the Senate, too.
The White House was quick to cast blame on those not named Trump.
“President Trump was not on the ballot, and it’s proven that Trump voters show up when he is on the ballot,” a White House official told The Washington Sun. “Also, candidate quality matters, and President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves.”
But the loss, the full magnitude of which wasn’t fully clear Tuesday with many Western states still counting ballots, was nonetheless notable. It came after the president spent the final month of the election barnstorming the country, casting his 30 rallies in 20 states as the secret sauce to juice his base’s turnout.
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“Please pretend I’m on the freakin’ ballot,” Trump said in New York on Oct. 9. He said the same to crowds at most other October rallies.
In several red states, Trump talked about how hard he was working to elect Republican candidates. After Rep. Mike Collins’ Senate defeat in Georgia, a source close to the president said that Trump “busted his ass” for Collins, as he did for other candidates, and called Collins lazy for not working harder himself.
But Republicans have questioned for months whether Trump’s travel was doing any good, if not outright harming the candidates he was trying to help. One operative previously told The Sun that Trump just needed to “stay at the White House.”
When the poor showings spread across traditionally ruby red areas of the South — from Georgia to Texas and South Carolina — Republican operatives and officials again expressed annoyance with or questioned the White House’s strategy to parade an unpopular president into seemingly red races.
“The rallies didn’t matter,” said one Republican operative in Georgia. “It was all baked. People are fucking pissed and they blame him and they have good reason.”
One administration official said it plainly: “Bad message and bad candidates.”
A Trump world operative defended the logic behind the strategy, as Trump has widely been viewed as the magic charm for Republican turnout. But the plan underestimated the dissatisfaction with his presidency, even among people who supported him in the past.
“On one hand, the only person who owns the ‘Trump coalition’ and could, theoretically GOTV [get out the vote], is Trump,” one Republican operative said. “But also, the only person who owns an approval rating that is about to sink into the 20s is Trump.”
As the results came in, there was shock and denial, surprise and expletives flowing from all corners of the Republican Party. One administration official said they had just changed the channel on the TV they were watching to avoid more bad news.
Trump said that he would accept the election results.
“We’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll, you know, look forward to working with them,” Trump told The New York Times. “We’ll probably work something out.”
While Democrats appeared well on their way to asserting control over the next Congress, some in Trump’s orbit blamed the electoral disaster on the Iran war.
“Iran [was] a bigger problem than a lot of people realize,” a former Trump official said, pointing to persistently high gas prices. “I’d like to see the outcome with no Iran war. I do believe the Democrats would make [gains], but I don’t know that those gains would be like where they are in the Senate.”
Fox News host Sean Hannity, the staunchest of Trump allies, echoed that sentiment when asked whether the results would have been different without war.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” Hannity said. “Unfortunately, it’s the best thing for our children and grandchildren. But higher gas prices, how people feel, I think, is the more dominant feeling force right now.”
Rather than being an indictment of Trump, a source in Trump world told The Sun that the night’s results were proof that Republicans can’t take turnout for granted when Trump isn’t on the ballot.
“President Trump and his operation worked harder than anyone to turn out Republican voters, going above and beyond to make up for some candidates who failed to do the work themselves,” the source said, predicting that independents who swung Democrat would have buyer’s remorse.
Those in Trump’s orbit didn’t expect the president to spend much time reflecting on his role in the blowout.
Some advisers saw the reactions coming ahead of Tuesday night.
“If we lose the election, someone whose last name is not Trump is gonna take the blame,” one outside adviser to Trump told The Sun.
It was a sentiment that Trump began to lay out online shortly after the first polls closed, attacking Fox News’ reporting on the races in multiple social media posts.
“It’s them, not me,” Trump said of Fox on Truth Social. “My numbers are better than they have ever been.”
And even after many lost races, he remained resolute in his stance.
“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Trump said later. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
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