Trump’s White House ‘defiant’ despite Democratic midterm gains

President Donald Trump’s White House said Tuesday it was in a defiant mood despite a likely hammering in the US midterm elections – warning Democrats to “buckle up” and blaming some Republican candidates.

The 80-year-old president himself had appeared agitated before the first results even came in, posting a string of angry messages on social media lashing out at conservative broadcaster Fox News’s coverage.

But after initially saying Trump was “cautiously optimistic,” the mood music changed as Democrats looked increasingly likely to deal the president a bruising setback that could upend his last two years in power.

“The White House mood is defiant,” a White House official told AFP.

The official however questioned the quality of Republican candidates for the House and Senate – many of whom Trump had endorsed and travelled across the country to rally support for.

“Candidate quality matters, and President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves,” the White House official said.

Trump was hosting his cabinet officials and political advisers in the White House East Room for a reception to watch the results come in, the White House said.

Some White House staffers dined on take-out from US chain restaurant The Cheesecake Factory, in a dig at Democratic former president Barack Obama, who had said Trump’s White House renovations were “looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

But journalists were not allowed into the watch party, and a bunker mentality increasingly appeared to be taking hold.

Polls repeatedly showed American voters were angered by Trump’s Iran war and the resulting spike in the cost of living, but the White House dismissed those concerns.

‘Buckle up’

“Anyone who voted Democrat today is going to have a serious case of buyer’s remorse when gas prices come down quickly when the Iran conflict is solved but they’re still stuck with a list of liberal extremist Democrats,” the White House official said.

“And a final note here: regardless of how today plays out, President Trump’s resolve to stop the Radical Left is only going to become stronger. Buckle up.”

Trump said earlier this week that a deal with Iran could be near, but there has also been intense speculation that he could resume large-scale military operations after the midterms.

Trump had earlier let his frustration boil over as he posted on his Truth Social network about how Fox’s recent ratings decline was because it was not being sufficiently loyal to him.

In one post sent as the first polls closed, Trump said Fox was “way down, not because of me, but because they are AGAINST me!”

In another post Trump blasted one host as “DUMB AS A ROCK,” and in a third he slammed a Fox poll of voters opinions as “always the worst.”

“FoxNews Ratings are way down (27%!) because they’re spending too much time covering the Trump Deranged Dumocrats!” Trump added.

Trump held near-daily rallies in the month before the midterms, urging Republicans to “pretend I’m on the ballot” despite his own record-low approval ratings.

With Democrats looking increasingly likely to win both the House and Senate, it could spell the end of Trump’s most powerful period, and of his reign over the Republican Party.

Trump threatened in a telephone interview with the CBS network on Tuesday to be “Mr Veto” and block any Democratic legislation if they win.

Subscribe to our newsletter and get news delivered to your mailbox.