Donald Trump has given his first public speech since the magnitude of his party’s election defeat became clear – but chose to focus on his planned White House ballroom instead of the disastrous midterm results.
His appearance came shortly after Vice President JD Vance conceded that the Iran war was the reason Republicans suffered such historic defeats.
Democrats racked up a string of stunning victories in the midterm elections, in what could prove a major check on Trump’s presidency.
The Democrats are assured control of the House of Representatives, and will also take the Senate from Trump’s Republican Party after flipping at least seven seats including traditionally red states such as Kansas – which has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly a century – and Texas.
Posting on social media after the defeat, Vance said: “The reason we lost is the war. The President himself said so last night.”
Vance later added that “any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there”.
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Mapped: Democratic gains in US midterm elections
Good night
We are closing our live coverage for today, thank you for joining us.
The i Paper will be back tomorrow with more coverage and analysis of the US midterms.
I spent 25 years as a Capitol Hill Republican, Democrats can do ‘nothing’ to stop Trump’s executive power plays
Dan Scandling spent more than two decades advising senior Republicans on Capitol Hill, he told The i Paper the party’s midterm losses would do little to check Donald Trump’s use of executive power.
“Trump is not going to change, that’s not who he is,” the senior director of APCO’s government relations programme said.
“He is going to continue to rule by executive order.”
Despite securing sizeable majorities in both the House and Senate, Scandling explained there was “nothing” Democrats could do to prevent Trump pursuing his own agenda while simultaneously blocking theirs.
Trump has already indicated he could play spoiler for his remaining two years in office, posting a picture of his signature red baseball cap emblazoned with the word “veto” as results came in on election night.
Scandling, though, noted Democrats may not seek to completely undo all of the President’s policies.
“They’ll look to end the Iran war, try and fund more healthcare, but they won’t get rid of the tariffs,” he said.
“They need the money.”
White House declares Trump will ‘defy the odds’ despite midterm wipeout
The White House has put out a statement defending Donald Trump’s record in the wake of Republicans’ midterm losses, backing the President to “defy the odds” and continue his agenda.
“Every time the Radical Left, the Fake News, and the professional panic class have written President Trump’s obituary, they have been wrong. They will be wrong again,” the statement read.
The White House listed what it called Trump’s achievements, including border security, “energy dominance” and ending “race-based DEI”, as it claimed Democrats would attempt to undo the President’s plans.
It also warned any effort to impeach Trump a third time would end in “failure”.
‘I was the US ambassador. American politics is about to splinter apart’
The Republicans could be forced to reign in their radical policies and return to the centreground after a bruising election nighr, the former British ambassador to the US has said.
Lord John Kerr said the result was a “far bigger landslide” than he had expected. “Texas going is remarkable,” Kerr told The i Paper. “Kansas, Iowa, places that I was when I was over there, I’d say were rock solid Republican.”
Kerr predicted that the result would force the GOP to move back towards the centre of politics.
“I think that looking longer term, the Republican Party will probably begin to split” between hardline MAGA supporters and the “old fashioned Republicans”, Kerr said.
“I think Putin is, in a way, the test. The old Republican Party would have been far firmer than the old Democrat Party in resisting the invasion of Ukraine and defending NATO.”
Kerr said that those peddling a far-right or anti-woke agenda were “having a bad run”, citing the defeats of Viktor Orban in Hungary and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.
“I think people like J.D. Vance, who’s been preaching that stuff, need to stop and think. If he’s going to become the candidate, and he’s probably still the front runner to become the candidate, won’t he have to move back to the middle a bit?”
But Kerr also suggested that the Democrats would face some soul-searching, over whether to lean into its left or right wing factions – particularly after the victory of high profile progressives like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
“It is possible that the left of the Democrat Party will be resurgent. But if the candidate next time round comes from there, the Republicans will win again,” Kerr predicted. “The Democrat Party must think very hard about the risk of moving too far left, because America is not a socialist country.”
Mississippi Senate race will run ‘for days’
There is no conclusion in sight in the Mississippi Senate race, which is currently too close to call, with just 65 votes in it.
Democratic candidate Scott Colom is narrowly ahead, as he tries to unseat incumbent Senator Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Colom currently has 462,857 votes to Hyde‑Smith’s 462,792 votes, while independent candidate Ty Pinkins has almost 20,000 votes. So far, 96 per cent of the votes have been counted, but there are still more than 3,000 absentee ballots to be counted.
Mississippi Democratic Party Chair Cheikh Taylor told the BBC the race was unlikely to be decided until Monday.
It’s one of just two outstanding Senate races, along with Alaska, though Democrats have already established a majority.
Abortion rights activists set to take wins
Three of four US states where abortion measures were on the ballot have voted to improve reproductive rights, CNN projections show.
Voters in Nevada and Virginia voters approved constitutional protections, and Missouri voters rejected an effort to repeal protections they adopted in 2024.
However, in Idaho, 56 per cent of voters did not support establishing abortion rights in state law.
Rebel Democrat who backed Republicans ‘doesn’t regret it’
Haley Stevens, the Michigan Democrat who dramatically endorsed the Republican candidate for Senate just two days before the election, has said she does not regret her decision.
Stevens withdrew her support for Abdul El-Sayed, who last night won his race to become the US’s first Muslim senator, and instead backed Mike Rogers.
In a post on X, Haley today said that she recognised that her decision “has consequences.”
“I don’t regret it, but I am truly sorry that it upset some of my colleagues and people I care about personally,” she wrote.
Top Republican hits out at ‘bad politics’ and ‘bad character’
Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney appeared to take a swipe at Trump’s White House, saying that “bad policy, bad character make bad politics” after huge midterm losses for his party.
Romney, who was an outspoken Trump critic before retiring from the Senate last year, criticised the administration for “impulsive Iran war, blanket pardons, apparent corruption, weaponized justice, ICE brutality, mountainous deficits, hiding Epstein, abandoning allies and coddling enemies.”
Romeny, who was beaten to the White House by Barack Obama, said he was “hoping for a course correction, for the country.”
Which election results are left?
The Democrats have already taken control of both the House and the Senate, in a blue wave across America.
In the House, the Democrats’ total seats are projected to now stand at 240, and they have already won 54 in the Senate.
But we’re still waiting on the final results of two senate races – Mississippi and Alaska. These may not materialise tonight. In Mississippi, there are reported to be just 65 votes between the two candidates with more than 96 per cent of the ballots counted.
Around 375 of the 435 results are in for races in the House of Representatives.
Democrats can ‘carry out an agenda’ that matters, says Illinois governor
Yesterday’s blue wave in the midterm elections will allow the party to “actually carry out an agenda that really means something for working families.”
Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said that the first thing Democrats should do now they control Congress is raise the minimum wage across the country and allow more paid time off for workers.
“Democrats need to be very clear that we are sticking up for raising wages and lowering costs for American families,” Pritzker told CNN.
US stocks soar after Democratic wins
US stocks soared on Wednesday after massive Democratic wins in the midterm elections, with the Dow marking its best day since April 2025.
The Dow also posted its biggest post-midterm elections single-day gain since 1982 – 83 per cent – according to data from CFRA Research.
The S&P 500 rose 1.58 per cent and had its second-biggest single-day post-midterm elections gain since 1982, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.44 per cent.
Trump’s extraordinary post-wipeout speech has hit new levels of delusion
By Simon Marks, The i Paper’s US commentator
WASHINGTON, DC – In the annals of Donald Trump’s numerous delusional appearances over the last several months, his Wednesday morning visit to the White House construction site where his ballroom-cum-military-bunker is being built may have been the most delusional of all.
Hours after he presided over the collapse of his Republican Party in midterms that delivered the Democrats control of both houses of Congress, Trump delivered a speech so breathtaking in its ignorance that it took your breath away.
Trump decided to use his first post-election appearance not to address the fury of voters who had turned on him. Instead, Trump thought, this was the moment to wax lyrical about his pet project for nearly 20 minutes.
Read more here.
Oil prices could fall amid hopes of an end to Iran War
Oil futures – contracts that allow investors to buy or sell oil at a predetermined price at a future date – have fallen in the aftermath of the midterm elections.
The drop accelerated after US Vice-President JD Vance acknowledged that the Iran war, which has hiked the price of petrol worldwide, was partly to blame for a wave of Republican losses. The statement appears to have given the markets a sense that an escalation in Iran is not currently likely.
Brent oil futures – the world benchmark – plunged nearly 8 per cent to $95.70 a barrel in recent trading, down by 16 per cent so far this month and on track to finish at two-month lows. WTI, the US benchmark, also dropped to below $90 a barrel.
“The market has decided that for the moment maybe we’re going to give peace a chance,” Tom Kloza, chief energy adviser at Gulf Oil, told CNN.
US Government launches new Iran sanctions
The US Treasury has issued new sanctions on more than a dozen individuals and companies based in India and Turkey, for what it says is support Iran’s shadow fleet and aviation sector.
The sanctions are an attempt to cut off suport for Iran and hurt its economy, as the White House continues to struggle to broker a peace deal.
Vice-President JD Vance said earlier today that the war was a key factor in a terrible set of midterm results for the Republicans, having exacerbated the cost of living and spiked petrol prices in the US.
Trump acknowledged that this had been a factor but defended military action, saying it had to be done.
A top Iranian security official said earlier that Trump had been dealt a military defeat and a political one by Iran.
Democrats take Texas state House
Democrats have taken control of the Texas House, which has been held by the Republicans since 2002.
Texas Democrats also won the state’s Senate race and its governor.
It comes as Democrat William Lawrence won his seat in the House of Representatives in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, defeating Republican incumbent Tom Barrett.
Barrett is an Army veteran who voted against Trump’s ability to wage war against Iran without congressional approval, having flipped the seat from Democratic control in 2024.
El-Sayed: Michigan voters rejected hate
The newly appointed Michigan senator, Abdul El-Sayed, said voters in his state had rejected hatred and division in the midterm elections.
“Michigan proved just how big we are. Rejected a hateful, spiteful campaign that had nothing to say about the issues and only wanted to point to my name and my face,” El-Sayed said.
“Michiganders rejected that. Every single county, every single one, pushed against that.”
Trump should be kicked out of party, says Republican ex-congresswoman
“If the GOP wants any chance in the future, it will have to kick Donald Trump out of the party.”
That is the verdict of Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene after last night’s devastating election results.
Greene used to be a staunch Trump defender, but has become an open critic in recent years, and posted on X today saying that he had “destroyed” the Republican party.
However, she said she doubted Republicans would move against Trump because “many elected Republicans only won because of his endorsement”.
“They will probably blame everyone and everything else and continue to worship Trump,” she said.
“If that remains their course, the Republican party won’t be able to win nationally for decades.”
Pete Hegseth safe for now – but Trump lines up potential downgrade job
Trump has defended his Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, amid heavy criticism of the Iran War and its impact on last night’s election results.
The President has just told reporters that he is not considering replacing Hegseth, saying: “I think he’s doing a very good job.”
However, he suggested Hegseth could takeover the seat of a Republican senator who is stepping down in Tennessee. Marsha Blackburn won the governor’s race on Tuesday so will be leaving the post, and could select her interim successor. Hegseth has lived in the state with his family since 2022.
“I actually think he’d be very popular if he did that,” Trump said of Hegseth potentially filling Blackburn’s seat, “but I haven’t heard that at all.”
CBS reported that Trump has been calling his advisers to seek opinions on whether Hegseth should stay in his post.
‘Largely true that Iran war cost Republicans the midterms – but we had to do it’, says Trump
US Vice President JD Vance said earlier today that the Iran war was largely to blame for the disastrous set of midterm election results last night.
Asked about this just now, Trump said this was “largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit, short term”.
But he defended the war, saying: “The Iran thing, we had to do and we continue to do it.”
US petrol prices reached a record high for an election day yesterday.
Trump ‘not even a little bit’ worried about impeachment
Trump said he is “not even a little bit” concerned about a possible impeachment attempt from the Democrats, now that they control both the House and the Senate.
Trump was impeached twice by the US House of Representatives, but both times he was acquitted by the Senate. The “blue wave” which swept America last night could see Democrats move to impeach him once again.
But the President said that impeachment would “destroy” the Democratic Party, and would be “for no reason”.
“Our country is more successful now than in any time in its history,” he said, before turning back to the ballroom construction.