Where does the defeat of Trump and the Republicans stand in the history of midterm elections since 1946?

The disavowal, for Donald Trump and his policies, is great. The Republicans suffered a heavy defeat in the midterm elections this fall of 2026. The majority is changing sides in both houses of Congress. At 6:00 p.m. this Thursday, while around thirty votes remained undecided, the G.O.P. had already lost 7 seats in the Senate and 39 in the House of Representatives. This constitutes one of the worst midterm election performances for the incumbent president's party since the end of World War II.

Le Figaro thus scrutinized the twenty-one mid-term elections held in the United States since 1946. Let us already note that it is extremely rare, for a president in office, not to suffer losses in Congress. Only two presidents have managed not to lose any seats. These are Bill Clinton in 1998 and George W. Bush in 2002.

The second is the only one to have achieved the feat of winning in both chambers, obtaining a narrow majority...