Trump left feeling blue after disastrous midterms
By Iain McLean
President Donald J. Trump at a Michigan rally || image by Brendan Smialowski via Getty Images
“I wasn’t on the ballot, and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Trump declared on Truth Social, all while his support base crumbled around him.
Americans took to the polls across the country on Tuesday, November 3, and the outcome fell far short of what President Donald J. Trump wanted.
While Alaska and Mississippi are still counting, both with a Democratic lead, the Senate has comfortably swung away from Republicans and given the blue side of the aisle a ten-seat lead, a gain of seven.
This is also mirrored in Congress, where Republicans haemorrhaged 42 seats to the Democrats.
Who suffered most from this now-dubbed “blue tsunami”? The President himself.
While polls leading up to the election pointed to the crucial count unfolding just as it did, Trump challenged America and his MAGA base to go out and vote like he was on the ballot.
This didn’t work, as almost all his MAGA Republicans were wiped out and replaced with progressive candidates.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who was originally supposed to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside Elon Musk, suffered a staggering defeat in Ohio’s Governor race to Amy Acton, with Acton picking up 52.31% of the vote.
Amy Acton celebrates her victory || image by Jeff Swensen via Getty Images
In Texas, Ken Paxton was embarrassed as James Talarico flipped Texas blue for the first time in 38 years, winning 55.09% of the vote to Paxton’s 42.99%.
MAGA took a second hit in Texas as tenured Governor Greg Abbot, was unseated by Gina Hinojosa with a 7% margin.
Lauren Boebert, the long-time MAGA champion, is still trailing Democrat Eileen Laubacher in the Colorado race, 48.77% to 47.92%, with 97% of votes reported.
The biggest blow to Republicans was Adam Hamilton’s historic victory in Kansas, which flipped blue for the first time in 94 years.
Across America, state by state, the red strongholds evaporated into a sea of blue, with Trump, right-wing pundits and right-wing TV stations all becoming more agitated as the night went on.
Who was to blame for this defeat? Trump blames anyone but himself. He declared his long-time ally, Greg Abbot, a RINO (Republican in name only), and has, as of one hour ago, declared the results could be fraudulent.
But what directly caused this massive shift? Trump and his allies put the blame squarely on the Iran conflict, but that’s not quite the whole story.
While avoiding a potential war with Iran was a major talking point, as Americans have shown time and time again in polls, they are not interested in another war in the Middle East; it is not the whole story.
In a similar vein to Iran, Americans were growing increasingly angry and frustrated with Trump’s backing and relationship with Israel's Netanyahu and the ongoing UN-recognised genocide in Gaza.
According to a recent Gallup poll, 62% of Americans rated the situation in Palestine ‘extremely or very important.’
Trump promised, as part of his day-one promises, that he would get the cost of living under control; he did not. The average American is $1,600 worse off under his tenure.
According to the BBC, eight in ten voters cited the cost of living as why they voted Democrat.
Gas station prices || image by Patrick T. Fallon via Getty Images
Another key factor in this massive defeat is the repeated Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) incidents. The shootings of Alex Pretti, Renee Good and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo are examples of perhaps an unconstitutional overreach by masked agents.
Talarico visited Salgado's memorial after voting and joined hundreds of others in placing their “I voted” sticker as a sign of solidarity.
Trump briefly admitted in a 60-minute interview that his immigration “crackdown” might have gone too far and cost him votes.
Poor Republican campaign management also contributed to their failure. In Michigan, Mike Rogers couldn’t even show up to a televised debate with Abdul El-Sayed, leaving an empty podium instead of fighting for Michiganders.
This was echoed in the Texas race, as politicians on both sides of the aisle openly criticised the lack of effort Ken Paxton and his team put into his campaign, while Talarico and his team made their presence known across Texas, resulting in their efforts being logged in the history books.
James Talarico, Sylvia Garcia and Houston Mayor John Whitmire during a Harris County Democratic Party canvass launch || image by Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images
This was a theme across the nation as Super PAC-backed Republicans couldn’t outpace their grassroots-funded Democrats on the streets. The biggest example was Nell Brown, a Democratic candidate in Shelby County, Alabama.
Brown won 51.19% of the vote while only spending $11,040, compared to her rivals' $185,123.
The final reason, of course, is the one that shouts the loudest: Donald Trump.
A majority of Americans (59%) already disapproved of the President going into the midterms, and Republicans had noticed.
María Elvira Salazar in Florida released an ad stating that Trump's immigration effort had gone too far and risked alienating Hispanic voters.
Ashley Hinson in Iowa called for the Iran war to end, emphasising the economic pressure it would put on American families.
Mike Rogers U-turned on his support for the Iran war and instead called for it to end to re-engage voters in Michigan.
This can be repeated ten times over, as 41 congressional races saw Republican candidates distance themselves from Trump, with 12 even removing all images and mentions of Trump from their campaign materials.
So, what’s next for the President, with the walls closing in around him? Appeasement, it seems.
On the morning of November 4, the day after the midterms, Trump went on television from the construction site of his soon-to-be ballroom and said he and the Democrats could get on fine, despite rising calls for his removal as a top priority.
Robert Garcia, the incoming Oversight Committee Chair, released a statement that contained two words: “Lawyer up.”
Robert Garcia’s press release || sourced from Garcias social media
With the Democrats having overall control in both Congress and the Senate, joined by Republicans who are already showing growing disdain for their once-loved President, impeachment could be on the cards as the right side of the aisle might galvanise and aid in the removal of Trump from office in an attempt to save face.
All we can do now is wait and listen.
The Democrats will lay out their top priorities in both the Senate and Congress over the next three months. They must choose their leaders in both houses, and then we will see how long it takes for impeachment to come across their desks.
One thing is for sure, however: America will never be the same after this historic blue tsunami, and that’s perhaps for the better, not just for them but for the entire world.