Since Tuesday, many in MAGA world have rationalized the results: past presidents recovered from midterm losses, and Trump still has his veto pen. These arguments may have elements of truth, but most of those making them are in denial.
The truth is, the midterms were an epic drubbing for the Republican Party and for President Trump. Come January, Democrats will control both the House and the Senate, the first time a Republican president has lost both chambers since 2006. They flipped Senate seats in Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Texas, Maine, and both Carolinas. Kansas has not sent a Democrat to the Senate in nearly a century. That is not a routine midterm correction.
The causes are not a mystery. The Iran war, now in its ninth month, imposed crushing gasoline and diesel costs on families and small businesses. Gas averaged under $3 a gallon before the strikes in February, peaked above $4.50 in May, and has hovered above $4 since June. Tariffs pushed up prices further and hit farmers especially hard. Many voters also had concerns about the direction of our foreign policy and the people running it.
Fortunately, President Trump has been there before and has made comebacks his critics said were impossible. The presidency is still the most powerful office in the world, and Mr. Trump has two years left to use it to fully recover and make the second half of his term the best of his two presidencies. With the large number of far-left radicals and socialists in the new Congress and their obsessive hatred of Trump, the new House and Senate are more likely to be a foil than an obstacle for the president to reestablish his America First approach to government
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