THE MOURNING AFTER

Trump, 80, Self-Soothes With Fake Ceremony at His Happy Place

The president has made no secret of his love for the sounds of construction in the morning.

Donald Trump has responded to his party’s midterm bloodbath by focusing on the very thing voters told him they don’t care about: his vanity projects.

After Americans rebuked him for not doing enough to address their struggles, the president’s first public appearance on Wednesday involved taking reporters to the construction site of his White House ballroom to brag about its features and future dinner parties.

In a speech to construction workers, the 80-year-old president rambled about the marble he’d chosen, the drone port on the roof, and how dictators such as Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin would love it.

“This is the most powerful building, structurally—the most powerful building they say ever built—and it was designed that way so the president can have safety,” Trump said.

“He’s having the president of China, Russia, or any place else when they’re having dinner, when they have 2,000 guests, or 2,500 guests, they’re totally safe.”

The president’s comments came as Republicans come to terms with the electoral rout they faced on Tuesday night, when Democrats took back control of Congress by flipping GOP strongholds such as Texas, South Carolina and Kansas.

Among those trying to grasp the loss was JD Vance, who seemed to distance himself in a lengthy post that acknowledged he sought to distance himself from Trump.

“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote, adding, “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.”

Trump, however, struck a more defiant tone. He said he knew how his vice president felt about the war and agreed it contributed to Tuesday’s losses, “but at the same time if I had to do it again I’d do it again.”

But he also told reporters on Wednesday: “Our country is more successful now than any time in its history.”

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He then watched construction workers put a beam on his ballroom and then offered to take reporters on a tour of his new helipad on the South Lawn.

The president’s decision to focus on his ballroom after Tuesday’s drubbing comes after he made his closing argument before election day at the site of another vanity project: his botched reflecting pool.

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But it also left many observers shaking their heads on Wednesday as they called for dramatic realignment of the Republican Party.

“We need to pick up the pieces of the conservative movement, and fight for a renewed Republican Party with principles that stand for something besides Trump,” said former House Freedom Caucus chair Bob Good.

“He has destroyed the party, and he lost this election (helped by the 95% of obedient R’s).”

Nebraska GOP Senator Don Bacon agreed that a rethink was needed.

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“Americans don’t like chaos, narcissism, tariffs, corruption, Putin, rudeness to our allies, arrogance & indecency,” he wrote on X.

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“The GOP should embrace our roots: free markets, economic freedom, peace through strength, federalism, law and order, low taxes, pro-life… and we should act like leaders of the free world.”

And GOP strategist Doug Heye noted: “Trump’s day-after message is entirely consistent with his Election Day message: ‘I don’t care what’s important to you; this is what’s important to me’.”

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Farrah TomazinPolitical Correspondent

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