The US president told the New York Times that he accepts the results of the elections in which the Republicans were defeated but on Truth he claims that with his name on the ballot the party would have obtained a landslide victory. Then he brings up his veto power and at the same time says he doesn't want to spend the next two years using it
Donald Trump says he is ready to accept the results of the midterm elections, while the blue wave of Democrats advances towards gaining control of the House and Senate. "I am absolutely willing to accept these results," the US president told the New York Times, as the Democrats are on the verge of gaining control of the House and Senate. "We will work with the Democrats and, you know, we look forward to working with them. We will probably find an agreement," added the president, who ruled out having any regrets about having supported candidates such as Darline Graham in South Carolina and Ken Paxton in Texas. Trump spoke from the White House while following the election results, just before 10.30pm, 4.30am in Italy. "I'm looking at these results as I speak. I see that Darline lost. Wow, that's incredible. How do you think it would have gone for Lindsey if he had run?" he said, adding that he believes Senator Lindsey Graham, who died in July, "would very likely have won" (FOLLOW THE MIDTERMS LIVEBLOG).
Trump dumps Mike Johnson as Republican leader
Donald Trump praised the work of House Speaker Mike Johnson in an interview with Politico, without however expressing explicit support for his remaining at the helm of the Republicans after the Democrats won the majority. “I think he did a great job,” he said. When asked about the possibility of Johnson becoming minority leader, the president replied: "He will have to make that decision. But he is a good person and he is a good man." Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is preparing to become speaker in the new Congress.
"I don't regret the war with Iran"
Despite his resounding defeat in the midterm elections, Trump continues to defend some of his most unpopular policies. He told the New York Times that he did not regret his decision to go to war with Iran and that he believed voters agreed with his position. However, he admitted that the increase in fuel prices did not go down well with Americans. “The Iran issue doesn't bother them, but they probably weren't happy with oil prices,” he said.
On Truth: "With me on the ballot it would have been a landslide victory"
Before the interview with the NYT, the US president, who together with members of his cabinet and his political advisors is following the arrival of the election results in the East Room, had posted a message on Truth. "I wasn't on the ballot and if I had been, we would have won WITH A OVERWHEEL VICTORY!" he wrote after about three hours of silence after the count began. The president remains "combative," an administration official told NBC News. The explanation given by the entourage is that, since his name was not on the ballot, many Republicans would not have gone to the polls. A reconstruction that compares with the appeals made by Trump himself during the last rallies, when he explicitly asked voters across the country to vote as if his presidency and his policies were at stake.
The threat of becoming Mr Veto
Between one message and another on the social network Truth, with criticism in particular of the Fox News broadcaster, Trump also said he was ready to resort to "enormous powers" and use the presidential veto after the midterm elections which certify the 'blue wave'. In a telephone interview with CBS News, released before the polls closed, Trump claimed to have "supreme power, it's called a veto", adding that he was ready to block Democratic legislative initiatives. The president argued that a recent Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Slaughter (the firing of Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter) would give him broad executive powers, allowing him to advance his agenda even with an opposition-controlled Congress. "We won the Slaughter case which gives the president enormous powers he never had before." A concept also reiterated to Politico, to which he said: ""I have the right to veto everything, but I don't want to spend two years vetoing everything. We will work with the Democrats. They have already called - he added - I have many friends also among the Democrats". To reiterate the concept of his powers, Trump also published on Truth Social a photo of a red hat with the word "veto", in the wake of the clear electoral defeat in the midterm elections. Then again on his social network he added: "I will become a political commentator, for better or for worse, on the reasons why these candidates won and lost!".
The clash with Fox News
Election night was also the occasion for an attack on Fox News, a conservative television channel very close to the Trump administration. The US president, however, engaged in a remote battle with the broadcaster by publishing three messages on Truth in the space of 95 minutes. The president accused the network of spending "too much time covering 'Trump-obsessed Democrats.'" In another passage he criticized the performance of Fox's ratings, claiming that they are "in sharp decline, not through my fault, but because they are AGAINST me!".
No public events at the White House
In the aftermath of the election, Trump has no public appointments scheduled. According to the agenda released by the White House, the president will spend the day in the presidential residence, without events open to the media. The program provides only generic "executive time" and "policy meetings", while the results of the midterms and the democratic advance are outlined.
