Donald Trump’s endorsed candidates suffered a series of defeats as Democrats regained control of both the House and Senate in a sweeping midterm election result.
Republicans lost ground in traditional strongholds including Kansas, South Carolina and Texas, while several candidates personally selected by Mr Trump were defeated.
In Senate races, Ken Paxton in Texas, Michael Whatley in North Carolina, Mike Collins in Georgia and Darline Graham in South Carolina all lost. Mr Trump’s gubernatorial choices Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio and Steve Hilton in California were also beaten, although Byron Donalds secured a narrow victory in Florida.
Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, also lost his re-election bid. Mr Trump blamed him directly, writing on Truth Social: “If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost. He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty!”
Mr Abbott had been a staunch conservative and strong supporter of Mr Trump while in office. He had also reversed an earlier pro-data centre position amid a wider backlash against artificial intelligence.
The results appeared to prompt an angry response from Mr Trump, who had campaigned for Republican candidates around the country and urged voters to act as if he himself were on the ballot.
In a further post, he sought to distance himself from the defeats, saying: “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”
A White House official similarly argued that the candidates, rather than the president, should bear responsibility for the outcome.
“President Trump was not on the ballot, and it’s proven that Trump voters show up when he is on the ballot,” the official said. “Also, candidate quality matters, and President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves.”
Mr Trump also criticised Fox News, claiming its ratings had fallen because it was devoting too much coverage to what he called the “Trump Deranged Dumocrats!”. He added: “All of those people who used to watch Fox, and no longer do, get it. It’s them, not me — My numbers are better than they have ever been.”
He also attacked the network’s polling, writing: “Every question is a hit job, and every answer is “BULLS–T!” This has been going on for years.”
