Republicans blame Trump for the US midterm election defeat

The key facts

Democrats won majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 2026 midterm elections
Democrats won majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 2026 midterm elections
Some Republicans openly hold Trump and his policies responsible
Trump said his name was not on the ballot and that otherwise the party would have won 'by a landslide'
Trump said his name was not on the ballot and that otherwise the victory would have been 'by a landslide'

Shock has turned to anger inside the Republican Party

According to the BBC, the Republicans' initial shock after Tuesday's midterm election results quickly gave way to anger at President Donald Trump. Democrats scored unexpected victories in deeply red states — Texas, Kansas and South Carolina — stripping the party of control of Congress. 'This is on him. It's not on anyone else. It's a complete, total rejection of President Trump,' a Texas lobbyist told the BBC Bill Miller, calling what happened 'a catastrophe of the first order.'

What exactly the president is being blamed for

About a dozen party figures, campaign staffers and White House allies interviewed by the BBC (many on condition of anonymity) cited unpopular policies, low approval ratings and Trump's obsession with construction projects in Washington. One White House ally spoke of a 'perfect storm' of discontent over the war with Iran, tariffs and immigration policy, adding that anger at Trump was 'extremely high.' Minnesota strategist Gregg Peppin said: 'Clearly, state by state, people did not like the president's policies.'

The scale of the defeat

Most Republicans had expected to lose the House of Representatives, but the outcome exceeded pessimistic forecasts: Democrats won dozens of House races, gubernatorial elections and Senate seats, including in states where the party had not been competitive for decades. Before Tuesday, Democrats had not won a Kansas Senate seat since 1932, and had not won a statewide election in Texas in more than three decades. In Texas, Democrat James Talarico took the Senate seat from Republican Ken Paxton; in Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown won a Senate seat, in Iowa Josh Turek, and in Michigan Abdul El-Sayed.

Trump's reaction and the defense from his circle

Trump stayed silent for most of the evening, and after the results for both chambers were announced he wrote on Truth Social: 'I wasn't on the ballot, and if I had been, we would have won BY A LANDSLIDE!' Later he told Fox News he was 'a little surprised' by the results, but noted that the president's party typically performs poorly in midterms, and said he would accept the outcome. The president's allies considered it unfair to blame him, pointing to the history of midterm elections and weak candidates in swing states. One Texas Republican, speaking anonymously, called Paxton's campaign 'the worst Senate campaign in the country from either side,' and Talarico's campaign 'genuinely good and smart.'

The campaign that didn't work

Trump and Vice President JD Vance held dozens of campaign rallies, and the Trump-linked super PAC MAGA Inc. spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting Republicans. However, as the BBC notes, Trump's famous voter mobilization machine, so effective in presidential elections, once again failed to work in an election without him on the ballot. Voters rejected both the claim of a better economy under Trump and the attempt to portray Democrats as 'radical socialists' — moderate Roy Cooper won in North Carolina. The party's September convention in Dallas — the first 'midterm convention' in decades — failed to draw a large television audience: in his keynote speech Trump promised $5,000 (£3,700) to everyone who voted Republican, and while endorsing Paxton spent a long time criticizing his charisma and appearance. 'Obviously, that never helps,' commented Robin Armstrong, a Republican National Committee member from Texas.

What's next for Trump and the party

Instead of momentum toward 2028, Trump gets a motivated Democratic majority in Congress, ready to investigate the administration's actions, block his judicial nominees and stall the rest of his agenda. The BBC notes that the elections opened an uncertain phase of the second term and may force Republicans to think about the future after Trump: some of those interviewed are already looking toward 2028 — Steve Scheffler of Iowa named JD Vance, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz as possible candidates, while Peppin expressed hope that the party would 'turn the page on the Trump era.'