Trump shrugs off midterm blowout as blame game kicks off

The day after a stunning political drubbing, U.S. President Donald Trump Now envision chandeliers all over you, sir. seemingly more interested in his ballroom. It'll be the most beautiful ballroom, I think, anywhere in the world. Pressed on catastrophic Republican losses in the House and Senate, he did have a theory. I mean, if I were on the ballot, we would have won. My best friend. Although he repeatedly told voters at rallies to act like he was. Please pretend I'm on the freaking ballot, will you? Pretend there was such love at those rallies. It was incredible. We weren't able to transfer the love to candidates. That's one possible explanation, but there are others. It's a total repudiation of Donald Trump, total repudiation of his, I think his tariffs, his war on Iran, his corruption, his vanity, and the cost of living. Trumpism and its drag on the GOP being blamed for Republican wipeouts in state races like Arizona. Trump's fault. There's no one else's to blame for this. Is this the end of MAGA? It should be the end of MAGA. It should be the end of these folks, you know, taking control and then losing race after race. But the problem is they have such a firm control on the party apparatus right now. Longtime Republican presidential hopefuls taking stock of the damage. This is close to an extinction level event for Republicans. In many parts of the country, as we have seen probably in the last hundred years. And then there's Elon Musk, who poured nearly half a billion into Republican races. On Tuesday, he posted, vote red today. Now that post, apparently, deleted. The finger-pointing has begun. In a post, Vice President J.D. Vance blamed Trump's war with Iran. The reason we lost is the war. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start now. I think it's largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short term and probably that's, probably it's true. But at the same time, if I had it to do again, I'd have to do it again. Though without the House and the Senate, this president may be on a shorter leash than other presidents when they enter that lame duck period, the final two years in office. Although, Katie, he's already mentioned several times now that he has this veto power. Yeah, the president can reject any legislation passed by Congress, but not if it has a two-thirds majority in both chambers. Of course, the Democrats don't have those numbers, but they can reach across the aisle, see if there are Republicans who don't mind crossing a president whose power may be waning. Meaning, um... But the president did say earlier today he was willing to work with Democrats. All right, we will see. That is Katie Nicholson in Columbus, Ohio.