Trump whines ‘I wasn’t on the ballot’ as his candidates are crushed in midterms one after another - The Independent

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President Donald Trump sought to distance himself from Republicans’ bruising midterm election losses Tuesday night, claiming his party would have fared better had he been up for reelection.

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday evening. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

The post followed a flurry of Election Day activity on Truth Social, where Trump shared dozens of endorsements of GOP candidates and repeatedly lashed out at Fox News, one of his preferred channels.

With millions of ballots still being counted, early results pointed to a brutal night for Republicans, leading Fox News’ Sean Hannity to moan: “I wish it was two years ago.” Democrats have been projected to pick up several Senate seats, including in Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina, and multiple outlets have already forecast that Democrats will regain control of the House of Representatives.

Trump’s latest remarks marked a departure from his message in recent months, when he sought to cast the midterms as a referendum on his presidency. During campaign rallies across the country, he repeatedly urged supporters to “pretend I’m on the ballot.”

“Please pretend I’m on the ballot cause in a way I am on the ballot, because they want to do away with all of the tremendous things we’ve done,” the 80-year-old president said during an October rally in North Carolina.

“Can everybody just close your eyes and pretend I’m on the ballot?” he said at another campaign event in Alabama.