White House: Trump tours ballroom site, skips midterm blame
The president spent nearly 20 minutes on construction details while Republicans lost control of Congress, a pattern of deflection that dates back to 2018.
By Sakura Ellis ·
President Donald Trump held an impromptu press event at the White House ballroom construction site on Wednesday.
He spoke for nearly 20 minutes about the building project and did not mention the Republican losses in the midterm elections held the previous night.
The site was a cavernous area where crews were erecting what Trump identified as the final beam of the structure.
Trump described the project as a structure "the likes of which has never been seen anywhere." He signed the beam as crews worked in the background.
The president had no scheduled public events before the gathering. He called reporters to the site at the last minute.
During a brief question and answer session, Trump stated that he would have won the election if he were on the ballot. He attributed the party's performance to a failure to transfer support from rallies to the candidates on the ballot.
Midterm voters cited the president's focus as a reason for their votes. An Associated Press voter poll found that about two-thirds of voters said Trump did not have the right priorities. Roughly one-third said he did. The majority of voters who felt he had the wrong priorities supported Democratic House candidates.
Republican losses shifted control of Congress to the Democrats. The party won Senate seats in states that had not elected a Democratic senator since 1932, including South Carolina and Kansas. Democrats also broke a more than three decade drought in statewide races in Texas.
Trump deflected responsibility on election night. He told Fox News that he was not on the ballot and that voters did not like the candidates who were. He pledged to work with Democrats and accept the results.
The president used the phrase "pretend I am on the ballot" in 30 of his last 39 speeches and rallies since September 1. An Associated Press analysis found at least 40 instances where he made this appeal.
This approach contrasts with previous presidents who acknowledged midterm losses. Barack Obama called the 2010 Republican gains a "shellacking." George W. Bush described the 2006 Democratic victories as "a thumping."
Trump has a history of blaming others for electoral setbacks. After the 2018 midterms, he cited losing lawmakers who did not embrace him. He called out representatives from Utah, Florida, Colorado, Virginia, and Illinois by name for their defeat.
