Trump lashes out with spurious claim that Republican losses were because he wasn't on ballot

04 Nov 2026, 04:06 by Rónán Duffy, https://www.thejournal.ie/author/rónán-duffy/ · TheJournal.ie

REACTING TO BRUTAL losses for his party across races for Congress in the House and the Senate, US President Donald Trump has claimed the reason for defeat was because he was not on the ballot.

Ignoring his appearances at various rallies in which he implored his supporters to vote as if he was on the ballot, Trump posted online to remind people he was not.

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Dismissing speculation about whether he would repeat his refusal to accept his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden, Trump later took a conciliatory tone with the New York Times.

“I am absolutely willing to accept those results,” he told The New York Times. “We’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll, you know, look forward to working with them. We’ll probably work something out.”

Trump later posting a picture of his trademark red MAGA baseball hat with the single word: “VETO.”

The US president also said that he was going to “become a political pundit” and give the reasons why Republicans lost.

First in his crosshairs was Greg Abbott, the loyal Texas governor unseated by Democrat Gina Hinojosa. Trump said that if Abbott hadn’t become a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only) “he wouldn’t have lost.”