Some conservatives are moving on from supporting ex-President Donald Trump after the ‘red wave’ failed to materialize in the midterm elections (Picture: AP)
The worse-than-expected performance of Republican candidates backed by former President Donald Trump may be signaling the beginning of the end for him.
Some conservatives, including prominent right-leaning media organizations, turned on Trump after the ‘red wave’ of Republican victories in Congress failed to materialize in the midterm elections.
Trump-backed Senate candidate Dr Mehmet Oz lost the high profile race to Democrat John Fetterman, and control of the Senate and the House of Representatives still remained in the balance on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis sailed to reelection, carrying even Miami-Dade County which has typically voted blue.
The New York Post’s cover on Thursday ridiculed Trump with a ‘Trumpty Dumpty’ headline likening him to the egg-shaped nursery rhyme character Humpty Dumpty.
The New York Post ran a scathing headline on ex-President Donald Trump on Thursday (Picture: Twitter/@MaggieNYT)
‘Don (who couldn’t build a wall) had a great fall – can all the GOP’s men put the party back together again?’ the Post’s cover page read.
That came a day after the Post ran DeSantis on its cover and labeled him ‘DeFuture’.
Jacqui Heinrich, a White House correspondent for Fox News, which is also part of conservative Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire, reported a similar sentiment.
‘GOP source tells me “if it wasn’t clear before it should be now. We have a Trump problem”’, tweeted Heinrich on Wednesday.
Former President Donald Trump spoke to guests at Mar-a-Lago on Election Day (Picture: AP)
Longtime GOP strategist Scott Reed urged members of his party to move on from the 45th president.
‘I mean, we had a historic opportunity and Trump’s recruitment of unelectable candidates blew it for us,’ said Reed. ‘Trump’s now lost three elections in a row for the Republican Party and it’s time to snap out of this foolishness.’
Trump was reportedly furious at the midterm results and blamed people including his wife Melania for advising him to endorse Oz.
On Wednesday, Trump acknowledged that the election was ‘somewhat disappointing’ but cast it as ‘a very big victory’.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (left) was reelected and praised by many Republicans (Picture: Getty Images)
In a Truth Social post on Thursday, he hit at the media and insisted that he was not upset at the results.
‘For those many people that are being fed the fake narrative from the corrupt media that I am Angry about the Midterms, don’t believe it,’ wrote Trump. ‘I am not at all angry, did a great job (I wasn’t the one running!), and am very busy looking into the future. Remember, I am a “Stable Genius.”’
Trump had reportedly planned to announce his 2024 bid for the White House a week after the midterms on November 15. But some senior Republicans are urging him to hold off.
Trump’s former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, now working for Fox News, said Trump should wait until after the Georgia Senate runoff election to decide. Trump’s picks in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada have struggled and the races there are still too close to call.
‘I think he needs to put it on pause,’ said McEnany on air.
Regarding whether Trump should campaign, McEnany said: ‘I think we’ve got to make strategic calculations.’
‘Governor DeSantis, I think he should be welcomed to the state, given what happened last night,’ she said. ‘You’ve got to look at the realities on the ground.’
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Some conservatives turned on Trump after the ‘red wave’ of Republican victories in the midterms failed to materialize.