President Donald Trump lashed out online after Republicans suffered huge losses to Democrats in Tuesday’s midterm elections, threatening to exercise his veto power and blaming his own party–and Fox News–for the defeats.
“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Trump wrote on Truth Social after seeing Republicans lose control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He wrote in another, “I’m going to become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost!”
Democrats flipped several seats in key races in states where Black voters were projected to have turned out in high numbers. Black leaders are calling it a rebuke to Trump’s MAGA agenda, or a “Blacklash,” a term coined by pollster Terrance Woodbury of HIT Strategies.
“What we saw in this country is that our political power has been hit. Our economic power has been hit. Culturally, we’ve seen this white nationalism…all those things,” said Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown, who joined dozens of Black leaders and groups on a unity coalition call led by the Coalition on Black Civic Participation.
Brown added, “They hit us. We hitting them back.”
The power shift in the U.S. Congress threatens the last two years of Trump’s presidency, which will almost surely be met with congressional investigations and oversight, and will roll back Trump’s most unpopular policies, from his war in Iran to the revocation of cuts to federal programs and health care. However, Trump defiantly threatened to fight back with his presidential veto power. On Truth Social, the president posted a picture of a red hat with the word “Veto” on it.
Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright told theGrio the Republican Party and Trump will have to answer for not wanting to work with Democrats in a bipartisan way to “deliver financial relief” amid economic hardship.
“If he takes that route, then he’s going to cause even more long-term damage to the Republican brand and the party,” said Seawright, an advisor to U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the next likely Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Following Trump’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion, censorship of Black history, and a call to redraw election maps that dismantled majority-Black districts, civil rights leaders and groups came together to organize Black voters to the polls. Tuesday night’s results showed those investments paid off.
“This is a powerful moment for the entire country. And it was led by everyday Black people who decided that their rights, that our rights, would never be taken from us, and refused to go down quietly,” said activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham during the Tuesday night unity coalition call. Packnett Cunningham added, “Not only are we not going down quietly, we’re also not going down at all. We are rising.”
While Trump’s initial reaction to Republican losses was defiant, he suggested he was willing to work with Democrats. When asked by CBS News what his message was after the election, Trump said, “My message is, congratulations to the Democrats, and I look forward to working with you for the good of our country.”
He added, “I know a lot of Democrats. I have total veto power, and I’m sure we’ll be able to work things out. I think they’re gonna want to work with me. Otherwise, I’d just veto everything, and they’re not gonna want that.”
Seawright said Tuesday night was certainly a “Blacklash” to how Trump and Republicans have governed since taking power.
“It’s a result of the rejection of the overreach, the extremism, and the failure to deliver on the promises that were made in the 2024 election cycle,” said the Democratic strategist. “Tonight shows that the back has been broken of Trumpism and the MAGA movement.”
