US President Donald Trump has rejected suggestions that his leadership contributed to Republican losses in the midterm elections, instead blaming the party’s candidates for failing to mobilise voters.
Democrats won control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in Tuesday’s vote, raising questions about Trump’s political standing for the remainder of his term.
Trump dismissed the idea that the results represented a personal setback.
“But I don’t view it as a hit on me,” he told Fox News in a live phone interview. “We’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency in terms of the economy, in terms of all the things that we’ve done.”
He argued that the losses stemmed from the performance of individual Republican candidates rather than his administration’s policies, including the war in Iran and tariffs that have contributed to rising prices. He also pointed to what he described as favourable media coverage of Democratic candidates.
“I thought they’d do better,” Trump said of the Republican candidates. “They just didn’t inspire the people to get out and vote. And I wasn’t on the ballot. If I was on the ballot, they would have got out.”
Several defeated candidates, including Darline Graham in South Carolina, Ken Paxton in Texas, Michael Whatley in North Carolina and Mike Collins in Georgia, had received Trump’s endorsement.
Defending his support for Paxton over incumbent Senator John Cornyn in Texas, Trump said: “I had no choice. When it wasn’t fashionable, he kissed my ass.”
In a Truth Social post, Trump said he would analyse the reasons for the wins and losses. He later criticised Texas Governor Greg Abbott as a “Republican in name only.”
In a separate interview with Politico, Trump said he did not want to blame anyone and expressed willingness to work with Democrats.
“I don’t want to blame anybody,” he said. “I just want to say, you know, it was a very interesting period of time. I watched with great interest, learned from it.”
On the war in Iran, Trump told The Wall Street Journal: “I don’t think about it. I did the right thing. I would have done it again.”
