Two years after his decisive popular-vote victory, Donald Trump suffered a major defeat on Election Night.
The President himself was not on the ballot, of course. Other candidates paid the political price instead. But the message was unmistakable: voters were rejecting Trump, and the exit polls conducted across the country made that clear.
Trump urged voters to treat the election as a referendum on his presidency. Yet only 16 percent told CNN they had voted to support him, while 43 percent said they were voting to oppose him.
Trump’s economic record was another serious liability for Republican candidates. Sixty-five percent of voters said his policies had made the economy worse.
Sixty-two percent disapproved of Trump’s job performance. Sixty-three percent said he was focused on the wrong priorities, and 55 percent questioned whether he had the mental capacity to serve effectively.
None of this had to happen.
Trump’s first term had been a political success until the pandemic struck, an event beyond his control. His administration oversaw a strong economy, low inflation, tax cuts and reduced regulatory burdens. It also tightened the border and avoided launching new foreign wars.
As the pandemic receded from voters’ memories, many Americans wanted a return to those conditions. Trump, however, appeared to lose sight of that lesson. Rather than seeing wages rise faster than living costs, consumers faced higher prices driven by tariffs and the war with Iran. The pressure was felt by households, businesses and, above all, drivers filling their cars at the gas pump.
This was a repudiation of the President. Two years after his triumphant popular-vote victory, Donald Trump suffered a decisive defeat on Election Night
Trump also tested the patience of anti-war voters through brief military interventions in Iran and Venezuela before overreaching with a prolonged conflict involving Iran. On immigration, he could have focused on closing the border and deporting criminals. Instead, ICE raids spread through city streets, resulting in deadly shootings involving American citizens.
The President also failed to maintain the cooperative relationship he had built with congressional Republicans during his first term. Despite their disagreements, Trump allowed House Speaker Paul Ryan to shape much of the 2017 tax-cut legislation and gave Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell the leading role in confirming conservative judges.
That partnership delivered results.
Congress can be frustratingly slow and frequently divided, but presidents benefit from listening to lawmakers who represent voters and understand their constituents’ concerns.
This time, Trump did not allow Congress to vote on his tariffs. Had lawmakers been given that opportunity, they might have curbed some of his most aggressive moves.
He also bypassed congressional approval before going to war in Iran. Congress could have required him to justify the conflict publicly and explain its goals to the nation.
Trump became, in George W. Bush’s famous phrase, ‘the decider.’ He approved pardons, pressed for politically motivated prosecutions and picked unnecessary fights with Canada and Denmark over Greenland. He also devoted attention to vanity projects, including the Kennedy Center, a triumphal arch, a ballroom and the Gulf of America.
He gave ICE and DOGE broad latitude to push beyond reasonable limits, accumulated billions through a crooked cryptocurrency bill and clashed with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Rather than rewarding Trump for governing without congressional consent, voters delivered a different verdict. Seventy-one percent told CNN that Congress was not doing enough to restrain the President.
Trump’s aggressive hostility toward dissent also helped drive Republican senators such as Thom Tillis into retirement, clearing the way for Democrats to take their seats.
He also backed weak Republican candidates, including South Carolina’s Darline Graham, North Carolina’s Mike Whatley and Georgia’s Mike Collins.
All of the schemes to redistrict House seats and battle illegal voting were for naught. It wasn’t close enough for alleged Democratic cheating to matter for Republican maps to save the day.
It was too perfect a metaphor that Trump spent his last speech of this 2026 midterm campaign at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, gazing at his renovation, entranced like the mythical Narcissus by his reflection in his own works.
So, what comes next?
Republicans ought to enter the wilderness but who leads the way out?
Vice President JD Vance may still have the inside track for Trump’s endorsement in 2028, but who thinks that association won’t be a liability in a general election?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has emerged as the most respected figure in the administration, but he has suggested that he might not run if it requires fighting Vance for the nomination. Plus, Rubio is also closely associated with the Iran war.
One Republican who emerged on Tuesday unmarked by the defeat is outgoing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The candidate he handpicked to take Rubio’s Senate seat when he joined the Trump administration, Ashley Moody, won re-election. And DeSantis left his state in strong enough condition that Byron Donalds, who wasn’t his preferred successor, was able to hold Republican control of the governorship.
The Florida gerrymander wasn’t a great success, but neither was it a huge failure. The governor’s pet cause, a ballot initiative to slash property taxes, appears to have passed. And in interviews, he sounds like a man free to criticize Trump’s foreign and domestic policies.
In 2024, DeSantis couldn’t compete with Trump’s outsized personality. But maybe right-leaning Americans are now ready for something different, more focused and more competent. Someone who can learn from the past.