Election analyst Nate Silver has suggested Donald Trump could leave office before completing his term if Democrats take control during the final two years of his presidency.
The former ABC contributor correctly forecast a “blue tsunami” before Tuesday’s elections. Democrats won at least 54 Senate seats and 250 House seats, although several races remained undecided.
On his Still Counting podcast, Silver described a political climate in which Trump could choose to step down before his term ends.
“I had just a weird intuition that maybe Trump will find some pretense to quit, you know what I mean? Because he could get very, very, very isolated, and that also could make him dangerous,” Silver said.
Silver said Trump was not “evil,” but argued that Republicans had accepted a bargain with him that he could no longer fulfill.
“I just think that Republicans made — I was searching for a more original metaphor — but a deal with the devil in Trump, right? And I don’t mean that to mean that he’s evil. I mean that in the sense of, like, you get your three Supreme Court justices, you get tax breaks for the wealthy, but you pay a lot of f***ing price for that,” he said.
He also accused Trump of “sucking the oxygen out” of the Republican Party and preventing other figures from emerging.
Silver said Trump could potentially step aside to give JD Vance the advantage of running as an incumbent.
Election analyst Nate Silver predicted that Donald Trump could leave office early if Democrats seized power during the final two years of his presidency
Silver said Trump was not “evil,” but argued that Republicans had accepted a bargain he could no longer deliver
Silver said Trump’s final two years would be unusual because “he has lost the fear factor” and much of the influence he once held over Republicans.
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson said the possibility was “not that far-fetched.”
The Daily Mail has contacted the White House for comment.
Silver had been confident about Democrats’ prospects in the November 3 elections. Three weeks earlier, his model gave the party a 94 percent chance of winning the House and a 75 percent chance of capturing the Senate.
In an interview with The New York Times’ Ezra Klein, Silver said a Democratic sweep could prove “momentous.”
“If the election goes roughly as the polls say it will go, then in some ways it would mark the end of the Trump era, I think,” Silver said.
KEEP READING: War Episode 6 Ending Explained: How [Spoiler] Discovers Johnny Is the Mole
Although Trump would remain president for another two years, Silver said the results could turn him into “a super lame duck,” comparable to George W. Bush after the 2006 midterm elections.
He added that Democratic victories in states such as Kansas and Texas could signal a “generational turnover” in American politics.
Silver also suggested that Trump could step aside and give JD Vance the benefits of incumbency
Silver said a Democratic takeover of both chambers in the midterms could mark “the end of the Trump era”
Join the discussion
What impact do you think Trump’s possible early exit would have on America’s political future?
“After 2024, there was talk of a permanent conservative vibe shift, that Democrats were on their back heels and Biden had failed and wokeness was dumb,” Silver said.
In his Silver Bulletin newsletter, the forecaster pointed to The New York Times/Siena polls published on the final day before the elections as evidence that a “blue tsunami” was approaching in his analysis.
Democrats had gained 40 House seats, with 27 races still undecided, along with seven Senate seats. Two additional Senate contests were still unresolved but leaning toward Democrats.
The party captured Senate seats in states where it had not won for decades, including Texas and South Carolina, as well as a rare victory in Kansas.
Late-counted ballots could still give Democrats two more Senate wins in Mississippi and Alaska.
In the House, Democrats had secured 253 seats, a net gain of 38, while 25 races remained undecided.
Democrats also won governors’ races in 29 states, giving them a majority for the first time in 16 years.
They picked up “trifectas” in several states, placing every branch of those state governments under Democratic control.
Trump blamed the losses on weak candidates and his absence from the ballot, while other critics pointed to his policies and the Iran War.