Republicans are turning on MAGA — and doing some serious soul-searching about the direction of the party after suffering a historic defeat in the midterm elections.
Outgoing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley were among the prominent Republicans calling on the party to reset, learn some difficult lessons, and look to the future following the Democratic wipeout.
Others hailed the beginning of the end of President Donald Trump’s grip on the GOP and the potential demise of the MAGA movement.
“Today is the beginning of the end of MAGA,” Republicans against Trump, a group that describes itself as “pro-democracy conservatives,” celebrated on X.
While the White House was eager to remind Americans that Trump “is still your president,” DeSantis likened the midterms to “an extinction-level event for Republicans” at a sombre press conference Wednesday morning. He warned the effects of the midterm results would be felt for years to come.
“We knew it could be worse, but I don't think most of us thought it would be quite this bad,” DeSantis said. “This is really going to have an impact two years, four years, six years, maybe even longer, before Republicans could exercise unified control in Washington again.”
Haley, a frequent Trump critic who launched a failed bid for president in 2024, reprimanded the GOP for listening to Trump over the American people.
“To my fellow Republicans, this is not the time to whine, complain, or point fingers,” she said, but proceeded to list her party’s faults.
“The bottom line is, Republicans didn't listen to the American people; they listened to Washington, D.C. And while the American people were saying groceries are high, gas is high, health care is high, you're not listening,” Haley said. “What you saw in D.C. was self-dealing and corruption and celebrating.”
Romney, meanwhile, said he was “hoping for a course correction, for the country and for my party” in a post on X, and reeled off a list of factors that he believed contributed to the GOP’s downfall.
“Bad policy, bad character make bad politics: erratic tariffs, impulsive Iran war, blanket pardons, apparent corruption, weaponized justice, ICE brutality, mountainous deficits, hiding Epstein, abandoning allies and coddling enemies,” Romney said.
Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, also believed that the election “was the beginning of the end of MAGA.”
“Everyone has been crying wolf about this for months, but this is the first time I'm saying it,” she said. “Look at the states we just lost. The Trump name no longer has kingmaking power.”
Trump barely acknowledged the humiliating defeat at his first public appearance since the results came in Wednesday. The president gathered reporters to talk about how construction on his beloved White House ballroom was coming along.
Asked whether he had any regrets about the way he closed out the campaign, Trump said “no.”
“If I were on the ballot, we would have won,” he said, despite telling Americans repeatedly to pretend he was on the ballot.
Still reeling and with more election results to come, Republicans are dusting themselves off and trying to work out what happens next.
“There’s a little bit of a reckoning in the Republican Party about where they go,” Matt Dole, chair of the GOP in Licking County, a deep red county in Ohio, told Politico. “I think you’re going to see a part of the Republican Party advocate for a return to normalcy, which is not repudiating Trump’s ideology and policies, but will repudiate Trump’s style.”
Others outright celebrated the fact that Trump will be out of office in two years, marking an end to a chaotic decade of Trumpian politics.
“It sounds a little ironic,” Bobby Charles, the failed Maine GOP gubernatorial candidate, told the outlet. “But I am nevertheless optimistic for the future because Trump’s going to be gone in two years.”
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats also face their own reckoning over the future direction of the party after progressive candidates made gains Tuesday.
“I think both parties need to do some self-reflecting and see where they decide to go,” Haley said. “A lot can change again in two years.”
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