Donald Trump, during the first day of his second term as president 21 months ago, declared, "The golden age of America begins right now."
American voters in the midterm elections judged Trump's presidency to be gold-plated at best, a skimpy veneer of suspicious shine slapped onto chintzy and cheap slag sure to show rust and ruin.
They wanted something else. Something reliable. Something honest. And so America voted to give the Democratic Party comfortable majorities in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate come January.
How bad were the midterms for Trump? This was a total Trump slap-down. And his Republican allies in Congress felt the sting.
Voters across America made their frustrations clear
Those Republicans, after surrendering any semblance of serving as a coequal branch of government and then offering
an enraged electorate a more-of-the-same pitch to remain in control for two more years, were routed across the American map.
Trump wasn't on the ballot – and may never be again – but he thought asking supporters to pretend he was would juice enough voter turnout to help Republicans remain in power. For a lifelong salesman, this was a stunningly tone-deaf ask.
Voters were furious about his shambolic handling of the American economy, his reckless war with Iran, his irrational international trade wars, his many abuses of government power to persecute perceived enemies, and the out-in-the-open corruption of his family cashing in on his presidency.
This was the Republican "Contract with America" 1994 midterms that fundamentally reshaped how then-President Bill Clinton was able to govern. This was the 2006 Democratic midterm wave of backlash against then-President George W. Bush's calamitous war in Iraq and his refusal to acknowledge American anger.
Democratic victories were significant – and sweeping
The bad news for Trump came early, then quickly:
- U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat seeking a second term, was seen early in the election cycle as one of the most vulnerable candidates for a Republican pickoff. The Associated Press declared Ossoff the winner less than an hour after the polls closed, as he finished with a commanding 18-point margin.
- Then, in North Carolina, former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper defeated Trump's handpicked candidate and former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley by nearly 20 points for a U.S. Senate seat.
- In South Carolina, Trump's Senate pick, U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, was ousted from her brief incumbency – finishing the term of her late brother, Lindsey Graham – by Democrat Annie Andrews.
- In Kansas, Trump's stumping for U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall also could not rally the Republican base to victory as another red-state ally fell to Democrat Adam Hamilton.
And in Texas – Texas! That long unrealized Democratic dream – Trump's fingerprints were most easily detected in Republican calamity. The president endorsed the colossally corrupt state Attorney General Ken Paxton and spewed yet more culture-war toxicity at Democratic state legislator James Talarico, who walked away with a 12-point victory in a red state.
The Texas rejection was so sweeping that Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican seeking a fourth term, was swept aside by Democratic state lawmaker Gina Hinojosa. Abbott, who must have sensed Trump's toxic touch on the midterms, avoided some of the president's campaign visits to Texas.
Trump could have made things worse on Election Day
For that, Trump branded Abbott a "RINO" – Republican in name only – savaging a longtime, loyal ally as he lost.
Trump, on brand as always, could not bear any accountability for any of this.
As the scope of the Democratic sweep in Congress – an ideological and geographically diverse dominance that will be examined for decades – became clear as election results rolled in, Trump posted on social media that "we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE" if he had been on the ballot.
Never has an American president been this far from reality.
The truth: It would have been so much worse if voters were able to judge Trump directly at the polling place.
The polling showed this demolition of MAGA control in Congress coming. Voter sentiment signaled this coming. But the Democratic Party was still shaky in feeling the vibe. "Nauseously optimistic" was their nervous rallying cry.
Trump's petulance was predictable.
But he still managed to hold off on what many feared would have been his worst impulses, like sending armed federal agents or troops to polling places to intimidate voters, which would have violated federal law. And federal judges consistently rebuffed the Department of Justice's repeated attacks on states' ability to administer elections, as dictated by the U.S. Constitution.
Now Democrats are tasked with balancing what voters want
With a loss this expansive, Trump's typical whining about "rigged elections" will land with a laugh if he lurches again into that impotent world of empty grievance. There is no court case to upend the results. No rally will change history.
What's left is a pared-down version of MAGA in Congress, Republican representatives and senators who never really broke from Trump and now are shackled to a lame-duck president likely to thrash about as his power ebbs.
On the other side of the aisle, the Democratic majority that will take control of Congress in two months will be a complex and possibly unwieldy assemblage of democratic socialists, progressives and moderates. No single Democratic template won the midterms. That's why they won.
The job ahead is a balancing act – reducing the cost of health care and mending the economic damage of Trump's real war and trade wars while also bringing accountability and regulation to his lawless administration.
That's a tall order. With no time to waste. Because an American electorate that gave Republicans control of Congress in 2024 and took it away in 2026 could swing again during the 2028 presidential election.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on Bluesky, @bychrisbrennan.bsky.social, and on X, @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Americans gave Republicans what they deserved: A lesson | Opinion
