“Biggest loser tonight”: Trumpworld is “catatonic” over his MAGA midterm failure

Prominent current and former Trump supporters cast blame on the former president after the widely hyped “red wave” failed to materialize on Tuesday.

Republicans may still win control of the House but the race is currently in a dead heat, far from the huge majority the GOP expected to pick up in the midterms. Democrats appear to have a chance to hold on to the Senate after Trump-backed candidates like Don Bolduc in New Hampshire and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania failed to defeat their Democratic opponents. Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidates Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania and Tudor Dixon in Michigan also lost their races.

Former Trump White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney contrasted Trump’s performance on Tuesday with that of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who won his re-election race by nearly 20 points after Trump refused to endorse him.

“Between being Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis tonight, you want to be Ron DeSantis,” he told CBS News. “DeSantis wins tonight and Trump is not doing very well.”

Republican strategist Scott Jennings, a frequent Trump defender who was offered a job in his White House, predicted that the results bode poorly for Trump’s chances to win the presidency.

“How could you look at these results tonight and conclude Trump has any chance of winning a national election in 2024?” he tweeted.

Conservative pundit Erick Erickson, another frequent Trump defender, said the former president shoulders the blame for Republican losses.

“Of the $100 million Trump had, he only spent $15 million and saddled the GOP with a lot of clunker candidates,” he wrote. “Part of the base, however, would rather blame conspiracies than ever cast doubt on Trump.”

Republican donors took notice too.

“Big money donors are telling me tonight they are ready to turn the page on Donald Trump,” CNN’s Alice Stewart reported on Wednesday. “They now see he is an anchor on the party and this is not just people that have not been supportive of Trump, these are Trump allies.”

Trumpworld figures like Steve Bannon have been “despondent” and “catatonic” over Tuesday’s failures, NBC News’ Ben Collins reported.

“They were looking at all these other places that did not really line up with all the polls that we’re seeing in the weeks beforehand. They sort of can’t believe it,” he said on MSNBC. “They really did not have a plan. They were making fun of the Democrats’ ability to get out the vote while they started to lose some of these races.”

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An anonymous Republican source told Fox News that “if it wasn’t clear before it should be now: we have a Trump problem.”

The Fox News website published a headline calling Trump the “biggest loser tonight.” The New York Post, which is also owned by Fox News chief Rupert Murdoch, touted DeSantis’ win on its front page Wednesday, labeling him “DeFUTURE.”

Pundits across cable news spent Tuesday night in awe of Trump’s weakness throughout the night.

“I think you have to say Donald Trump has now presided over two disastrous midterm elections,” former Obama strategist David Plouffe told MSNBC. “He’s deeply unpopular, he supported a bunch of horrible Senate candidates,” he added.

MSNBC host Chris Hayes said Trump “screwed” his own party.

“He is unpopular. He is unpopular,” Hayes said. “He screwed you today. Screwed you. It’s not the full story… but it is part of the story, and the sooner you dump him, the better it is for the Republican Party and American democracy, full stop.”

ABC News’ Jon Karl noted it’s still unclear who will control the House but “what I can tell you is the biggest loser tonight is Donald Trump.”

Trump, meanwhile, took to Truth Social to accuse the media of downplaying his wins.

“174 wins and 9 losses, A GREAT EVENING, and the Fake News Media, together with their partner in crime, the Democrats, are doing everything possible to play it down,” he wrote. “Amazing job by some really fantastic candidates!”