Trump says he will veto “insane” legislation, then predicts cooperation
President Donald Trump accepted the results of the 2026 US midterm elections after Democrats took control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. In an interview with The New York Times, he said he was “absolutely willing to accept” the results and would “look forward to working with” the Democrats.
In a Fox News interview, Trump said he was “a little surprised” by the outcome and added, “I thought they’d do better,” referring to Republican candidates. He nevertheless said, “The Democrats did a good job. they fought hard,” and predicted, “We’ll probably work something out.”
Trump said Democrats would send “insane” legislation to his desk and that he would veto it. He then described what the parties would do after a couple of months of vetoes: “After a couple of months of vetoes, they’ll call and they’ll say, ‘how do we get this stuff done?’ And we’ll work together,” he said. Trump added, “I have the power of veto.” On Truth Social, he posted a photograph of a red cap, the kind usually emblazoned with his Make America Great Again slogan, bearing the word “VETO.” BBC News described the image as an apparent reference to Trump’s ability to block legislation in Congress.
Asked by a Fox News anchor for his takeaways from the result, Trump said, “I think a part of it was Iran.” He then attributed voters’ reactions to the conflict’s effects on US fuel prices: “People agree with what I’m doing on Iran but they really probably weren’t willing to do the short term consequences of paying more for gasoline - I understand that.”
Trump also directed his criticism at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who lost the governor’s race to Democrat Gina Hinojosa. Abbott’s defeat marked the first time a Democrat had won the Texas governorship in more than 30 years. Trump wrote on Truth Social: “If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost,” adding, “He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty!” BBC News identified RINO as Republican in Name Only and noted that the term is used by party members against those deemed disloyal to the Republican Party.
Within BBC News’s live coverage, an update by North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher was headlined “Democrats tear up Trump’s political map on historic night.” A separate update reported that James Talarico had become the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate seat since 1988. The results came as Republicans lost control of both chambers and the Texas governorship.
Trump said the Republican outcome would have differed if he had been on the ballot, declaring that the Republicans “would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” In an interview with CBS News, he distanced himself from some other Republican candidates who contested the election, saying, “In some cases they [voters] didn’t like the candidates, and in some cases those candidates were not my friend.” As Republican losses started mounting, Trump said on Truth Social that he was going to “become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost.”
That evening, Trump posted several criticisms of Fox News on Truth Social. He criticized the outlet for “spending too much time” covering Democrats and said the outlet’s poor ratings were “way down, not because of me, but because they are AGAINST me!” He also objected to Fox News’s interview with former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, whom he called “the Worst Mayor” in the history of New York City. Trump wrote: “He left the City in disgrace and the damage he caused was incalculable.”
Trump’s comments publicly accepted the Democrats’ control of Congress while saying he would veto legislation he called “insane” and predicting that the parties would later negotiate and work together. His explanation of the Republican losses cited the Iran conflict, higher gasoline prices and the performance of Republican candidates, including Abbott.