A defeated President Donald Trump made a stunning admission to Fox News after suffering a devastating night of Republican losses and thumping victories for Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections: “They finally got it,” he conceded.
“Congratulations to the Democrats, they did a good job,” a tired and occasionally slurring-sounding president said on the phone to the network he had been bashing on Truth Social a couple of hours earlier. “They’ve been looking for this one for 11 years, and they finally got it.”
The president also tried to deflect blame saying he wasn’t on the ballot in 2026 - but that was in stark contrast to what he said countless times in his rallies over the last month when he urged Americans to “pretend I am on the ballot.” It appears Americans did just that.
Trump took no responsibility for the Republican bloodbath that saw the Democrats retake the House and Senate as Americans delivered the president an undeniable rebuke of the last two turbulent years under his administration. His second presidency has been marked by a deeply unpopular war in Iran that caused gas prices to skyrocket; volatile trade tariffs and an unrelenting cost of living crisis; and heavy-handed immigration tactics that claimed the lives of U.S. citizens.
“I don’t view it as a hit on me,” he told Fox News. “I think we’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency in terms of the economy, in terms of all the things we’ve done…” he said Wednesday just after midnight.
Trump backpedaled as the Republican defeats started coming in thick and fast Tuesday night. “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” he posted on Truth Social shortly after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Fox host Bret Baier called Trump on that claim.
“In various rallies you said, ‘Pretend I’m on the ballot,’” Baier said. “But looking at this map, it doesn’t seem like that message got out to the Republican base.”
The president deflected responsibility again, blaming his party’s losses onto lackluster Republican candidates, some of whom – such as Ken Paxton and Darline Graham – even lost in GOP strongholds such as Texas and South Carolina.
“They didn't like the candidates and some of the candidates I endorsed fought me,” Trump said of his MAGA base. “In other cases, they just didn’t inspire the people to get out and vote.”
“I wasn't on the ballot,” he continued to protest.
Trump’s history of saying the exact opposite ran deep though.
“I'm on the ballot,” he told a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, on October 22. “Just because I am on the ballot, really. It's our stuff that's going to be taken away…if we don't win.”
In Corinth Mississippi on October 26, he declared, “And in a certain way, I am on the ballot.” He repeated the same thing in Bullhead City, Arizona, on October 14.
Trump’s call into Fox was noteworthy given that he had twice attacked the conservative cable news network on Truth Social that evening, declaring in one post: “Fox News Ratings are way down (27 percent!) because they’re spending too much time covering the Trump Deranged Dumocrats! All of those people who used to watch Fox, and no longer do, get it. It’s them, not me.”
In a follow-up, he attacked the network for having former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio on air as a guest, fuming: “Fox News bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse.”
His objections did not stop him from joining the network’s election night coverage twice, however.
The president signaled a willingness to work with Democrats over the next two years, but drew firm limits, ruling out compromise on immigration and transgender issues.
“The power of veto is one of the stronger powers that a president has, and they’ll send over things that are insane, and I’ll veto them,” Trump reminded Fox.
Notably absent from the interview were any allegations of cheating, a charge the president has long leveled against Democrats without evidence.
In the White House, Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles was reportedly hunkered down with aides mapping out the administration’s final two years. A White House source tried to strike a defiant tone to Politico.
“We’re going to take a page out of President Trump’s playbook and keep fighting for the American people,” the person said. “Anyone who thinks President Trump or this team is going to take our foot off the gas over the next two years is sorely mistaken.”
Republicans, meanwhile, are blaming Trump for the “Blue Tsunami.”
“We are beyond candidate quality. It’s a bloodbath,” a senior Senate GOP official told Politico. “Trump did this.”
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