President Donald Trump has desperately insisted there is still hope for the GOP in the midterm elections while also seemingly accepting the inevitable.
During an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, the 79-year-old president gave a long, meandering response when asked if he feared that Republicans would lose seats in the House in November and, therefore, control of the lower chamber for his remaining two years in the White House.
In response, Trump complained about how the ruling party historically suffers heavy losses in the midterms, while meekly suggesting the GOP is “going to do good” this year.
“When somebody gets elected president, that party always loses the midterms. I don’t know why. I don’t know why. Nobody can explain it. I ask people who are deep into the psychological world. I said, ‘Why is it that a voter votes for the opposite party?’ even when you have a good president.” Trump said. “It doesn’t make sense to me. So we’re going to try turning it around.”
The president suggested the GOP will need to do more to convince voters that his second term has been a success and that he should be given more “credit” for controlling the southern border and the dubious claim that he has “ended” eight wars.
Trump also said messaging needs to be improved to tout the apparent success of what he called his “detour” into Iran to “stop something that could have destroyed the world.”
“We have to explain to the voters, so importantly, the great job that we’ve done, because there’s no reason why the Republicans should be losing,” Trump said.
“These people, they’ll open up the borders again, they’ll have transgender for everybody. They’ll have men in women’s sports. They’ll end no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for our seniors. They’ll end it all,” Trump added. “And if people hear that, I don’t see how we lose the election.”
The Democratic Party is widely expected to retake control of the House in the midterms, where the GOP currently holds only a razor-thin majority.
Intense backlash to Trump’s second term, further exacerbated by his multibillion-dollar war in Iran, could also mean the Senate is in play for the Democrats.
This week, the influential election analysis outlet Cook Political Report shifted four races toward Democrats in the latest sign that the GOP is likely to suffer losses in November’s nationwide elections as voters turn on the ruling party.
This includes moving North Carolina and Georgia—two swing states Trump won in 2024—from “Toss Up” to “Lean Democrat.” It also moved the Senate races in Ohio from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up,” and Nebraska from “Solid Republican” to “Likely Republican.”
The GOP currently controls the Senate with 53 seats. Jessica Taylor, the Cook Political Report’s Senate and governors editor, said that Democrats winning back control of the upper chamber in November “still remains a tall order.”
However, Taylor added that this could change in the coming months due to the “increasingly sour national environment for Republicans.”
