Days before the midterm elections, former President Donald Trump appeared to walk right up to the edge of officially announcing his 2024 presidential campaign.
“I ran twice, I won twice, and did much better the second time than I did the first,” Trump said, falsely, at a rally in Iowa. “And now in order to make our country successful and safe and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again.”
But that was last week — back when political forecasters and pundits were widely predicting a “red wave” that would carry Republicans to strong congressional majorities.
Though control of the House and Senate are still up in the air, it’s clear that the red wave never came, with Republicans underperforming expectations up and down the ballot in key states. That weak showing spurred some conservatives to lash out at Trump, who had boosted losing candidates in numerous high-profile races.
Trump has been quick to respond, launching a string of social media salvos against his perceived enemies in the media and politics — including Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is widely seen as Trump’s biggest would-be challenger for the GOP nomination in 2024.
“Despite having picked so many winners, I have to put up with the Fake News,” Trump lamented Thursday on Truth Social.
“Big Victory, don’t be stupid,” Trump wrote in another post Friday morning. “Stand on the rooftops and shout it out loud!”
It’s not the first time Trump has been blamed for sabotaging Republicans’ election hopes. But the midterm results have set Trump on the defensive just days before he is scheduled to make a “very big announcement” on Nov. 15 — widely expected to be the launch of his 2024 presidential campaign.
Trump has held his status as the de facto Republican Party leader even after losing to President Joe Biden in 2020. After Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob spurred by Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen stormed the U.S. Capitol, top GOP figures continued to link themselves to Trump and ostracize the few Republicans willing to openly criticize him.
Meanwhile, many GOP candidates sought Trump’s endorsement in the midterms, and polls consistently showed him as the clear favorite to win the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
After the red wave failed to materialize Tuesday night, Trump initially claimed that the candidates he backed had performed well. “While in certain ways yesterday’s election was somewhat disappointing, from my personal standpoint it was a very big victory,” he wrote in one social media post.
Trump claimed that the vast majority of his picks won their elections. But his endorsement didn’t seem to help in some of the cycle’s most competitive races.
His preferred Senate candidates in Pennsylvania, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and New Hampshire, Don Bolduc, lost to their Democratic opponents, NBC News projections showed. Trump-backed Republican challenger Blake Masters trailed incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly by almost 6 percentage points in the Arizona…
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