Karoline Leavitt says Trump was ‘simply joking’ about canceling midterm elections

WASHINGTON, DC: The White House moved to defuse controversy on Thursday, saying President Donald Trump was joking when he suggested canceling the 2026 midterm elections.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on January 15 that Trump’s remarks, made in an interview with a newspaper, were not serious and should be taken in jest.

White House downplays Trump election remarks

A reporter asked Leavitt at the White House why President Trump had twice recently discussed canceling the election.

"My question is that President Trump has talked twice in recent days, once at the Kennedy Center and then to Reuters again last night, about canceling the election. Why is he talking about this?"

Leavitt responded, "I believe you’re referring to the president’s interview at Reuters last night. I was in that interview."

She emphasized, "It was a closed-door interview. Obviously, there was not audio or video. The President was simply joking."

According to Leavitt, Trump remarked, "We’re doing such a great job, we are doing everything the American people thought, maybe we should just keep rolling.’ But he was speaking facetiously."

Trump jokes about canceling midterm elections

In a recent interview, Donald Trump told Reuters that he expected the midterm elections to be difficult for Republicans.

Reuters reported that the president expressed frustration over the possibility that the GOP could lose control of the US House of Representatives or the US Senate, citing historical trends in which the party in power typically loses seats during a president’s second year.

“It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” Trump said. He also boasted about his accomplishments, adding that “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”

Trump threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota

On Thursday morning, January 15, the president threatened to use the Insurrection Act in Minnesota if state lawmakers did not step in to stop anti-ICE protests.

Trump said the protesters were “professional agitators and insurrectionists” and claimed they were attacking ICE officers.

The Insurrection Act gives the president the power to deploy federal troops or take control of National Guard forces to respond to violent protests or serious civil unrest.

The act is not a single law. Congress passed a series of laws between 1792 and 1871 that together allow the military to operate inside the United States in limited situations.

The president said that “many presidents have done it before,” but leaders rarely use the law. The last time a president invoked it was in 1992, when George H W Bush sent active-duty troops to Los Angeles following widespread unrest after the acquittal of police officers in the Rodney King case.