Democrats win both US chambers as Trump accepts midterm defeat, promises vetoes

Democrats take both chambers of Congress

Democrats won the US midterm elections held on Tuesday, 3 November, and with them majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate. According to RP Online, the president's party lost both chambers in a single election, a shift that has happened only twice in the past 70 years, the last time 20 years ago. Focus counts Democratic Senate wins in Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio and South Carolina, adds North Carolina to the list, and notes that several governorships also changed parties. In Texas, a traditional Republican stronghold, Democrats won the Senate race and the governor's race on the same night. Focus argues the results hit Republican strongholds rather than the typical swing states that alternate between red and blue.

Trump concedes and threatens vetoes

Trump congratulated Democrats in an interview with CBS News and told the New York Times that he accepted the results and was ready to work with them. In a Fox News interview he said Democrats would send him bills he considers crazy and that he would veto them, and that after several months of vetoes they would call to ask how the two sides could get something through. Spiegel Online reports he described his veto power as unrestricted and said he was sure a solution would be found. On election night he had written on Truth Social that he was not on the ballot and that a landslide would have followed had he been. He also posted an image of his red cap with the word VETO in place of the campaign slogan, which Spiegel Online says is most likely AI-generated.

Iran war, fuel prices and the cost of living

RP Online says the Iran war, which Trump began together with Israel more than eight months ago and has not yet ended, was a heavy burden for Republicans. Fuel prices rose in its wake and became a central concern for voters, and Trump had repeatedly promised that oil prices would fall soon, which did not happen. In his Fox News interview Trump acknowledged that the war and high gas prices played a role in the losses. Focus cites early exit polls showing that the cost of living was an important or decisive factor for nearly nine in ten voters, and that two thirds blamed Trump for high prices. Focus adds that tariffs and the Iran war appear to many voters as burdens on their economic situation.

Attacks on Republican allies

Blick reports that Trump also criticised Greg Abbott, the Texas governor who was voted out. Trump wrote that Abbott would not have lost had he not turned into a RINO, short for Republican in name only, during the last six months of his political career. The remarks appeared in the same posts in which Trump announced his own analysis of the results as a political commentator, which he said would cover both the good and the bad.

What the result means for 2028

Focus stresses that the midterm outcome is not yet a forecast for the 2028 presidential election. Handelsblatt cites a New York Times analysis finding that Trump's approval rating before the midterms was the lowest for a president at that stage since Harry Truman in 1946. Handelsblatt also says the Democratic win came with unresolved internal disputes and no clear leader, and that Trump's unpopularity helped them. When the Supreme Court struck down much of his earlier tariff policy at the start of the year, Trump kept it going by imposing replacement tariffs under another legal basis, and Handelsblatt does not expect him to change course on his own. RP Online recalls that he has never acknowledged his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.