Democrats have delivered a devastating blow to Donald Trump, seizing back control of the House in a sweeping midterm rebuke that has cemented his status as a lame duck president.
In a brutal result that has thrown MAGA into turmoil, Republicans lost multiple seats, including an early one in once-considered safe red Kentucky’s 6th congressional district.
Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr., who vanished for nearly four months earlier this year, also lost his reelection bid in New Jersey.
At the same time, Republicans came up short in multiple Florida districts that the GOP tried to gerrymander at Trump’s request to secure them from Republicans.
A Democratic campaign staffer described the night as a “bloodbath” for Republicans to the Daily Beast.
Democrats needed to pick up a net total of just three seats to lock in the House majority.
While votes are still being counted—and control of the Senate remains in play—Trump’s decision to make the election all about himself spectacularly backfired as Americans punished the 80-year-old and his party for issues such as soaring costs and the war in Iran.
Within hours of polls closing, the recriminations had already started as Democrats closed in on the magic number, 218, that locked in the majority.
The president spent the final weeks barnstorming the country, campaigning for his chosen candidates and urging voters to “pretend I’m on the ballot.”
“When I’m not on the ballot, much fewer people come out to vote. It’s just the way it is,” he told supporters at a rally in Kansas on Sunday.
Now, he faces two years of congressional investigations, subpoenas and the prospect of a fresh impeachment battle.
And after years of loyalty to Trump being the party’s defining test, Republicans face uncomfortable questions about whether his grip on the GOP has become an electoral liability — and who should take the blame for the losses that were expected to go even into deep Trump country.
Speaking on the New York Post’s podcast on Monday, Trump remained optimistic that Republicans could retain control of the House, despite midterm history and numerous polls suggesting otherwise for months.
But if Republicans did lose the House and Senate, he said, “I guess I’ll become Mr. Veto.”
“They’ll be sending stuff up. You veto it. And eventually, after a month or two of getting all vetoed—they’re just wasting time—they come over, and you make a deal,” he said. “I think that probably would happen, but hopefully we don’t have to worry about that.”
Others have acknowledged his lame duck status.
“The end of the Trump administration effectively starts after the election because we’re at the end of his second term and after a day or two, everyone will be focused on 2028,” veteran GOP consultant Christopher Nicholson told the Daily Beast.
Asked what his advice would be for his party going forward, he replied, pointedly: “Recruit candidates who fit the times, not the past.”
Republicans who have held onto their seats will also have to rethink their refusal to hold Trump accountable, said Joel Payne, executive director of progressive group MoveOn.
“For two years, we’ve watched them ‘Trump and billionaires first’ by rubber-stamping the war in Iran, a reckless tariff war, ICE’s violence, and the massive health care cuts,” he argued.
Retaining control of the House was always going to be a challenge for Republicans, who spent the past nearly two years with a razor-thin majority, which at times looked like it would collapse if even a single GOP House member retired early. But a Democrats’ victory could quickly expose their own fault lines, too.
Democrats were adamant that they were united in their opposition to Trump across the ideological spectrum from centrist Democrats to the most liberal wing of the party, but their ability to present a continued united front as Trump has another two years in the White House remains to be seen.
And with the 2028 presidential race looming, the party faces a fight over its future direction, leadership and candidates — and the prospect of a messy primary just as it takes power in the House.
Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingell said Democrats would have “a 100-hour agenda, and we will have a 100-day agenda.”
Asked whether tackling affordability or addressing the administration’s corruption would be the top priority, she insisted they were not competing interests.
“Part of the first 100-hour agenda will be to reverse some of the cuts that have cost people their health care and reverse the fact that we now have hungry children and hungry seniors because of cuts in Medicaid,” she said on a briefing call with the Daily Beast.
“But at the same time we are going to hold corrupt officials accountable because what they have been doing is significantly contributing to increased costs.”
Payne warned that Democrats cannot waste another majority, but he believes their biggest challenge will be moderates who “are not serious about the big, bold changes their candidates promised.”
