The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has reacted to the advance of the Democratic Party in the midterm elections by attributing the poor results of the Republicans to their absence on the ballots. "If I had been on the ballots, we would have won by a wide margin," he has assured through his social network, Truth Social, while the count points to a change of majority in the House of Representatives and keeps open the dispute for the Senate.
The statement comes after an election night in which the Democrats have managed to wrest several seats from the Republicans and reduce the advantage with which Trump's party entered the elections. The opposition has also achieved relevant victories in governor elections, while projections anticipate that it could regain control of the Lower House.
Trump, who was not among the candidates because midterm elections do not include the Presidency, has resorted to his own popularity to explain the results. The incumbent had already warned during the campaign about the difficulties of mobilizing his supporters when his name does not appear on the ballots.
Trump promised 5,000 dollars if the Republicans won the elections
During the weeks leading up to the elections, the president actively intervened in the Republican campaign and used different economic proposals to encourage voter turnout.
One of the most striking was his promise to deliver 5,000 dollars to each adult American citizen if the Republicans managed to keep their majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Trump presented the measure during the September Republican convention in Dallas, where he argued that the money would come from the economic growth generated by his policies. However, he did not provide a specific budgetary mechanism to fund the payments or explain how they would be carried out.
The proposal received criticism for linking a direct economic transfer to the victory of a political party. The president denied that it was an electoral incentive and defended the payment as a reward for Americans.
One million dollars for reporting voter fraud
Another of the initiatives announced by Trump during the final stretch of the campaign was a one-million-dollar reward for those who provided information about election fraud that resulted in an arrest and a conviction.
The announcement came on October 26, just a week before the elections, through a post on Truth Social. The offer included both alleged irregularities from prior calls and possible crimes related to the 2026 elections.
The leader initially did not clarify where the money intended to fund the rewards would come from. The proposal came after years of accusations of election fraud by Trump, including his claims about the 2020 presidential elections, which were not supported by evidence of widespread manipulation capable of changing the outcome.
The new composition of Congress will condition Trump’s last two years
Beyond the explanation offered by the president, the results of the elections will determine his scope of action during the last two years of his term.
If the Democrats regain the House of Representatives, they will be able to chair parliamentary committees, promote investigations into the Administration, and make it harder to approve certain legislative and budgetary initiatives.
Control of the Senate is also decisive for the White House, especially because of its role in confirming senior posts and federal judges. Losing the Republican majority would force the president to negotiate with the opposition to push through much of his appointments.
For now, Trump has chosen to assert his ability to mobilize voters in the face of results that threaten to change the balance of power in Washington. His claim about what would have happened had he been on the ballots is, in any case, a hypothesis that cannot be verified from the count.