This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.
Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump’s midterms response is a shrug.
What happened? By now, you certainly know: Democrats won overwhelmingly in Tuesday’s midterm elections, and they won everywhere. The party will head into 2027 with commanding majorities in the House and the Senate, breaking two years of unified Republican control in Washington, DC.
The results are a sweeping repudiation of Trump, the Republican Party, and the first two years of his second administration. But you wouldn’t know it from the president’s only public appearance on Wednesday, which focused on his beloved East Wing ballroom.
How is Trump responding? To a surprising extent, he’s not. He blamed the loss on Republican candidates and his absence from the ballot in social media posts Tuesday night, but his public comments have been subdued, with none of the claims of election fraud that have become his hallmark.
One Trump adviser, according to CNN, said that Trump likely would not attempt to challenge the results (Alaska notwithstanding, potentially) because the scale of the Democratic victories was “too big to rig.”
On Wednesday, Trump gave remarks from inside the partially completed ballroom — dwelling on its size, the kitchen setup, and his choice of marble for the flooring — and signed his name on a steel beam. His only comments on the midterms came in response to questions from the press, including about the Iran war, which Vice President JD Vance has blamed for the GOP loss.
“I think it’s largely true,” Trump said, “but at the same time, if I had to do it again, I’d have to do it again.”
What’s the big picture? It’s pretty likely that we’ll see a few different versions of Trump’s response in the coming days, not to mention when Democrats actually take power in January — my colleague Astead Herndon described it on Wednesday as Trump’s “stages of grief.”
Whatever the next two years look like, though, his tepid response to a historic defeat makes one thing clear: Donald Trump’s time at the center of American politics is slipping away.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
Another result of Tuesday’s elections: More than a million low-income Texans could soon have access to healthcare, after Democratic victories in the state opened up the possibility of Medicaid expansion. You can read all about it from my colleague Dylan Scott here with a gift link.
Or, if you’re ready to be done with politics content for today, here’s a picture of a baby muskox.
Have a great evening, and we’ll see you tomorrow!
