Donald Trump spent election night insulting Fox News, calling a TV commentator "DUMB AS A ROCK," and explaining that Republicans lost because he wasn't on the ballot. Then a user on his own Truth Social weighed in: "The reason isn't them. It's you." This is the same man who told an October rally crowd to "pretend that I'm on the ballot." Apparently the pretending didn't take.
The Ballot Excuse Has a Small Problem
Shortly before 11 p.m. ET on Tuesday, as Democrats piled up gains across the country, Trump posted his diagnosis to Truth Social: "I wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!" That is the whole theory. No policy. No candidates. No prices. Just the sheer gravitational pull of his name, absent from the paper.
The trouble is that he spent the weeks before the election telling voters the exact opposite. At an October rally, he urged supporters to "pretend that I'm on the ballot," which is a strange thing to say if you believe your presence on the ballot is the one magic ingredient that cannot be faked.
So which is it? Was he on the ballot in spirit, or wasn't he? Because if it counted when it might have helped, it counts now that it didn't.
Fox News Gets the Treatment
Trump's night started with enthusiasm. When polls began closing in parts of Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. ET, he posted, "KENTUCKY CLOSING SOON. A BIG DEAL!" Then the returns started to come in, and the mood curdled fast.
He went after Fox commentator Jessica Tarlov, calling her "DUMB AS A ROCK" and announcing he could not stand her voice. "Have to go somewhere else until that LOSER is off the air," he wrote. "I'll be back later!" Reader, he was back in under an hour.
The next target was Fox's polling. "The FoxNews Poll, always the worst, is so insulting with the questions they ask," he posted. "Every question is a hit job, and every answer is 'BULLSH*T!'" This is a sitting president reviewing a poll the way a man reviews a restaurant that gave him food poisoning, except the food poisoning is the voters.
What the Voters Actually Said
The AP Voter Poll on election day was not subtle. Trump's approval rating stood at 38%. A full 62% of voters blamed him for higher prices. And 71% said Congress should do more to check and balance presidential power.
Read that last number again. Seventy-one percent of voters walked into the booth wanting someone to rein in the president. That is not a population pining for more Trump on the ballot. That is a population asking for a leash.
So the ballot theory has a rival theory, and the rival theory has a poll behind it. Prices are high, he is blamed for it, and people showed up to say so.
Georgia, Texas, and the Candidates Who Got the Trump Treatment
Trump campaigned in Georgia for Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson and Senate hopeful Mike Collins. Collins lost to Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff. Trump had not publicly addressed the defeat as of the reporting. In Texas, Democrat James Talarico beat Trump-backed Republican Ken Paxton in a closely watched Senate race.
A White House official gave the New York Post the party line: "Candidate quality matters." The official added that Trump had promoted some of these candidates more effectively than they promoted themselves. Which is a fascinating defense. The president endorsed them, rallied for them, and lifted them up, and they still lost. The blame, apparently, belongs to the people he picked.
That official also warned that Democratic voters could face "buyer's remorse" and signed off with "Buckle up." Nothing says humility in defeat like a threat.
The Conciliatory Trump Lasted One Interview
In an interview with the New York Times, Trump struck a surprisingly mellow tone. He said he was "absolutely willing to accept those results" and floated working with Democrats. "We'll probably work something out," he said.
Then he went back to Truth Social and announced his next career move. "I'm going to become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost!"
So there you have it. The president of the United States has decided to moonlight as a cable news analyst, on the same night he declared a cable news analyst a LOSER. One user on his own platform offered an early review of the coming content: "The reason isn't them. It's you. You f**ked us!" That is a commenter, on Trump's own website, telling him the problem is him.
The Dingo Take
He lost and he wants a rematch with a ballot that doesn't exist.
Look at the pattern. When the candidates win, it's his magic. When they lose, it's their quality, or Fox's polling, or a commentator's voice, or the sacred absence of his own name on a piece of paper. At no point in this sequence is there a version where voters who are angry about prices looked at the guy in charge and drew a conclusion. Sixty-two percent blamed him for higher prices. That number does not care about his Truth Social posts.
Now he's going to become a pundit and explain why every candidate won or lost. Fine. Here's a free preview of the segment: the incumbent party got punished at the ballot box, the president's approval sat at 38%, and a user on his own platform told him the problem is him. Tune in tomorrow to watch him argue with that.
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