The key facts

  • Democrats won the November 3 elections and will hold a majority in the House of Representatives and Senate of the new Congress from January 2027
  • On Truth Social, Trump questioned the election’s integrity, citing polls, early voting, and electronic machines
  • Earlier he cited other reasons for the defeat: gasoline prices, the war with Iran, a weak campaign

Trump questioned the election results

US President Donald Trump questioned the integrity of the midterm elections held on November 3. On his social network Truth Social he wrote: “Does anyone really believe these ‘elections’ were honest? How could the polls be so wrong?”. This was reported by the Turkish agency Anadolu, while the Russian outlet Life.ru published the same post with a Russian translation.

Complaints about machines and early voting

Trump pointed to three grounds for doubt: discrepancies between pre-election polls and the results, unusually large “dumps” of early-voting ballots — in his claim, some batches were so large that the gap became impossible to overcome — and electronic vote-counting systems. “It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter himself!”, he wrote. According to Life.ru, the president was also suspicious of cases where, before the main polling stations opened, so many votes had been cast for one candidate that the rival was practically deprived of any chance of winning.

What changed in Congress

In the vote, Americans re-elected all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 35 senators. The Democratic Party won a majority in both chambers of the next Congress, which will take office in January 2027; the Republicans lost their majority, as Life.ru notes. Anadolu specifies that the Democrats also won governorships and seats in state legislatures, and that control of Congress will give the party the ability to set the agenda and conduct oversight while Trump remains in the White House. Most pre-election polls predicted a “blue wave,” and Republicans directed additional resources to defending seats considered safe.

Other explanations for the defeat

After the results were announced, Trump admitted that they “surprised him a little”, Life.ru reports, citing his words. Even before the vote he had expressed doubts about the security of the American electoral system, but after the Republicans’ defeat he cited other possible reasons for the party’s failure: rising gasoline prices, discontent over the war with Iran, and an insufficiently effective campaign. Thus, doubts about the integrity of the elections are not the only explanation he has named; the publications provide no confirmation of the claims of fraud.