Follow-Up: Trump Posts Late on Election Night: Says He Was Not on the Ballot and Would Have Won in a Landslide, Shares 'VETO' Cap Photo
On the night of the November 3, 2026 midterm elections, President Donald Trump watched the returns at the White House. Earlier that evening he had congratulated the Democrats on a phone call with CBS, as GSM reported. Starting at 10:37 p.m. ET, his posts on Truth Social turned harder-edged: he wrote that he 'wasn't on the Ballot' and that 'if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE.'
At 11:35 p.m., Trump named Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who had lost his re-election bid to Democrat Hinojosa in a race called by the Associated Press, as GSM reported. Trump wrote that Abbott would not have lost had he not 'become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life.' At 11:38 p.m., he posted that he would become a 'Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost.'
At 11:40 p.m., Trump posted a photo with no caption: a red baseball cap embroidered in large white letters with the word 'VETO.' The Associated Press has called both the Senate and the House for the Democrats, as GSM reported, and the new Congress takes office in January 2027; the presidential veto is one of the White House's main tools in dealing with a Congress held by the other party. At 11:52 p.m., he posted again, attacking Fox News for putting former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on air and saying the network bears responsibility for the losses for constantly featuring Democratic opponents.
The White House struck the same defiant note. According to Fox News and CNN, a White House official said 'the White House mood is defiant,' arguing that President Trump was not on the ballot and that his supporters turn out when he himself is running. The official added that 'candidate quality matters' and that Trump had done a better job promoting many of the candidates than the candidates had done themselves, and said voters who backed Democrats would have 'buyer's remorse' once the Iran conflict is solved and gas prices come down, while still being represented by the Democrats they elected. The official said Trump's resolve to stop the 'Radical Left' would only grow stronger regardless of the outcome.
In a live phone interview with Fox News that night, Trump said he had thought Republicans 'would do better' and attributed the results to a 'mood in the air.' Asked whether the outcome was a hit on him, he said he did not view it that way, and he described the first two years of his presidency as the greatest in presidential history in terms of the economy and everything done. According to The Wall Street Journal, he also said the war with Iran was only a 'piece' of the reason for the losses.
(Source: The White House)
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：2026年10月30日，特朗普总统在白宫接受「Pod Force One」播客专访（资料图）。白宫官方照片，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: President Donald Trump during a Pod Force One podcast interview at the White House on October 30, 2026 (file photo). Official White House photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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- 2026-11-03Follow-Up: Trump Posts Late on Election Night: Says He Was Not on the Ballot and Would Have Won in a Landslide, Shares 'VETO' Cap PhotoThis story
