'Would have won': Trump makes midterm losses about himself with landslide claim
WASHINGTON, DC: Moments after midterm results were declared, giving Democrats a thumping victory in a blue wave across Senate and House of Representatives races, President Donald Trump said it happened because of his absence.
While several tightly contested seats continued rolling in throughout the early morning and day of Wednesday, November 4, the 2026 midterm results were almost clear by Tuesday night.
Democrats now have total control of Congress with 54 of 100 Senate seats and 231 of 435 House seats in their favor.
Trump claims his presence would have changed the result
Trump, in a Truth Social post, declared that Republicans would have had a totally different fate in the midterms if he were on the ballot. This came after the GOP suffered a crushing defeat even worse than the one they suffered in 2018.
“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” he wrote.
Notably, several exit polls showed that Trump suffered a severe dip in approval ratings before the midterms, with a significant share of participants blaming him for rising costs and wanting Congress to do more to check him.
Democrats have successfully flipped the game by gaining control of Congress and crossing the 51-seat majority threshold in the Senate and 218 in the House.
Out of a total of 35 Senate seats up for election, seven flipped in favor of the Democratic Party. These are Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.
In the House, Democrats have so far won 231 seats and Republicans have secured victory in 139. Remaining races are to be called.
Decision Desk Model estimates a final total of 258 seats for Democrats in the lower chamber.
White House blames defeat on 'candidate quality'
The White House blamed bad “candidate quality” for losing once-safe Senate and House seats as the president’s office vowed that Trump would stiffen his resistance to Democratic policies.
“The White House mood is defiant. 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 was quoted as saying to the New York Post.
“Also, candidate quality matters, and President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves,” the official said.
“Anyone who voted Democrat today is going to have a serious case of buyer's remorse when gas prices come down quickly when the Iran conflict is solved, but they’re still stuck with a list of liberal extremist Democrats,” the official added.
“Regardless of how today plays out, President Trump’s resolve to stop the Radical Left is only going to become stronger. Buckle up,” he said.
