Trump grapples with political setback after Democrats ride voter fury over prices

WASHINGTON - It has been a year since Mr Donald Trump’s decisive win in the 2024 US presidential election, and the White House had planned an anniversary roll-out on Nov 5 highlighting the promises kept by the Republican leader since he returned to office.

Instead, the President and his Republican allies were left grappling with a string of Democratic victories in off-year elections, a rare setback for Mr Trump as voters in a handful of states signalled resistance to his agenda.

Mr Trump, known for resisting defeat, reacted predictably.

He blamed Democrats for a government shutdown – the longest in US history
– that he said contributed to his party’s losses, cajoled Republicans to change Senate rules to make it easier to pass his agenda and distanced himself from the results by noting the absence of his own name on the ballot.

But he also acknowledged that the night had not gone well for Republicans and, somewhat uncharacteristically, suggested they had lessons to learn from their loss.

“Exactly one year ago we had that big beautiful victory,” Mr Trump told lawmakers from his party at the White House early on Nov 5. “And last night was not expected to be a victory. I don’t think it was good for Republicans.”

“I’m not sure it was good for anybody, but we had an interesting evening, and we learned a lot,” he added.

Democratic wins in New Jersey, New York and Virginia
– driven in part by cost-of-living concerns – highlight the challenge Mr Trump and congressional Republicans face in 2026 in addressing voter frustration with the economy in the 2026 midterm elections.

The Nov 4 election also thrust a dynamic populist leader into the national conversation with Mr Zohran Mamdani’s ascension to the mayor’s office in New York, creating a natural foil for the President, a fellow New Yorker who likes to refer to the 34-year-old as a communist.

Mr Mamdani is a democratic socialist.

But Mr Mamdani’s message and ability to connect with voters could pose a threat to Mr Trump’s dominance in exerting populist appeal with the electorate.

That appeal appeared to have waned in both New Jersey and Virginia, where some two-thirds of voters who turned out said they were either dissatisfied or angry about the direction the US was taking.

Democrats won more than 75 per cent of those voters.

Democrats also won the majority of voters who said their family’s financial situation was either holding steady or falling behind.

Vice-President J.D. Vance said on Nov 5 it was “idiotic to overreact to a couple of elections” in states that lean Democratic.

He nonetheless suggested Republicans laser in on the economy.

“We need to focus on the home front,” he wrote on X. “We’re going to keep on working to make a decent life affordable in this country, and that’s the metric by which we’ll ultimately be judged in 2026 and beyond.”

White House says affordability to top the agenda

A White House official said the administration’s message going into the midterms would be directed at the affordability issue, one Mr Trump himself successfully ran on in his 2024 campaign against Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

“We’re reminding voters that this is how we won: speaking to costs that affect their wallets,” the official said.

Some Republican strategists said voters also needed to see Mr Trump more focused on domestic issues rather than foreign affairs, and noted that tariffs had not helped his quest to bring prices down.

The President, who returned last week from a five-day trip to Asia, has wielded tariffs as a cudgel internationally and spent significant time in recent months seeking peace deals in the Middle East
and between Russia and Ukraine.

“The problem with Trump is he’s trying to save the world, but he’s forgetting about the people who brought him here, and they’re not doing that great,” said Republican strategist John Feehery.

“He needs less running around, and more focus on what the political problems are at home.”

Mr Trump touted his peace efforts, but barely acknowledged Republicans’ election losses during nearly an hour of remarks at an economic conference in Miami on Nov 5.

He opened the speech noting it had been a year since the “single most consequential election victory in American history” and said Americans had “restored our sovereignty” by putting him in office.

“We lost a little bit of sovereignty last night in New York,” Mr Trump then said in a dig at Mr Mamdani’s victory. “But we’ll take care of it. Don’t worry about it.” REUTERS