Donald Trump’s MAGA movement appeared increasingly fractured as senior Republicans searched for explanations after the GOP’s midterm collapse—and began blaming one another for the defeat.
Democrats emerged from Tuesday’s historic election with commanding majorities in both chambers of Congress, along with control of most governorships across the country.
The finger-pointing began at the White House. Trump blamed the quality of the Republican candidates and argued that the outcome would have been very different had his own name appeared on the ballot.
‘I JUST WASN’T ON THE BALLOT. IF I WERE, WE WOULD HAVE WON IN A LANDSLIDE!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
In a striking break with the administration, Vice President JD Vance condemned the war in Iran as he sought to distance himself from Trump’s unpopular policies and position himself for the future.
‘The reason we lost is the war,’ Vance said. ‘If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so.’
He added: ‘Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.’
Donald Trump Jr. welcomed Vance’s blunt assessment, writing ‘every word of this is…’ before adding three 100 Points emojis.
That brief show of unity did not last. Pundits and politicians from across the Republican spectrum soon turned their criticism on Vance—and on one another.
Donald Trump’s MAGA movement appeared increasingly fractured as Republicans searched for answers after the GOP’s midterm disaster and turned on one another
Vice President JD Vance forcefully condemned the war in Iran while seeking distance from unpopular policies and considering his political future
National Review writer Noah Rothman accused Vance of undermining the administration while focusing on his own political ambitions.
‘Frankly, I don’t know why this White House tolerates the frequency and extent to which JD Vance feathers his own political nest at the expense of this administration’s own position,’ Rothman said.
‘He’s undermining it from within. They have to know what he’s up to. He won’t discipline himself.’
Fox News commentator Mark Levin endorsed Rothman’s criticism, describing Vance’s insubordination as ‘open and notorious now.’
Levin also directed his anger at the vice president over the failed ceasefire negotiations Vance had conducted with Iran.
‘The same buffoons who screwed up our Iran operations with the phony and feckless peace negotiations are now blaming the midterms debacle on the Iran war,’ Levin said. ‘Hence, their frenzied propaganda ops today.’
Former Vice President Mike Pence entered the debate with an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, blaming what he described as a Republican Congress that had abandoned the party’s principles.
Former Vice President Mike Pence wrote in the Wall Street Journal that ‘big government Republicans’ had abandoned the party’s principles
Donald Trump Jr. praised Vance’s bold statement, writing ‘every word of this is…’ before adding three Hundred Points emojis
‘Over the past two years, we’ve seen conservatives shrug as a Republican Congress continued to rack up record debt and spending while the administration seized stakes in private companies, imposed unconstitutional tariffs on friend and foe alike and abandoned the right to life, all while copying the other side by offering government handouts and expanding entitlements,’ he said.
Although Pence did not single out any individual, he described the war as ‘an albatross around the necks of Republicans.’
At Turning Point USA, commentators criticized media figures from the MAGA orbit whom they said had failed to remain loyal during the party’s difficult moment.
‘We saw the Megyn Kellys, the Tuckers, the Marjorie Taylor Greenes break away,’ TPUSA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet said on The Charlie Kirk Show.
MAGA-aligned commentators, however, had plenty of criticism of their own to direct at the president.
Former GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a close Trump ally, called the election ‘a total referendum on Trump.’
‘Trump covered up the Epstein files protecting rapists and pedophiles, started a foreign war no one wanted and killed a school full of kids, put his rich elite donors before the struggling Americans who put him in office, made life unaffordable with his tariffs, and caused gas and diesel prices to skyrocket while he played the market and sold crypto,’ she wrote on X.
‘And Republicans stood behind him silently clapping like trained baby seals,’ she added.
Former GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a Trump ally, called the election ‘a total referendum on Trump’
Tucker Carlson, a sometime MAGA ally, criticized Trump’s conduct at raucous campaign rallies, where the president complimented several men’s backsides.
‘I think a lot of men who voted for Trump two years ago imagine this was a masculine, vigorous leader,’ Carlson said.
‘Here’s a guy who’s vain and venal and indecisive… he’s dancing to YMCA? Wait a second, he kinda seems a little more like a b****y old woman than an alpha male.’
Carlson said Trump’s behavior was ‘not appealing to men because it’s not masculine.’
On her own show, Megyn Kelly said the Republican Party was ‘in ruins, and maybe it needed to be’ after the election results.
She faulted both the candidates and the broader party for depending too heavily on Trump.
‘They’re going to have to learn how to win without daddy on the ballot, and to find their ethical center, and not just be puppets of Trump’s, not to have their entire political world revolve around Donald Trump,’ she said.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who challenged Trump for the presidency in 2024, blamed the poor showing on the war, high prices and weak candidates. He also launched a sharp attack on Ohio gubernatorial loser Vivek Ramaswamy.
Tucker Carlson, a sometime MAGA ally, criticized Trump’s conduct at campaign rallies, where he complimented several men’s backsides
‘Vivek, he’s like a tech guy, did this Alzheimer’s drug, and he wants to bring in foreign workers on visas. That is not the type of person that’s gonna sell. And I know he shot himself in the foot,’ he said.
DeSantis had criticized the administration even before the results were known, warning in an interview that Republicans were ‘gaslighting’ voters.
‘Gas is higher. It hurts working-class people, and it’s higher because of this conflict. That’s just a fact,’ DeSantis told Stephen A. Smith.
‘If you can’t admit that to voters, then you’re gaslighting them, and they’re not gonna listen to you on other things.’
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who opposed Trump in 2016, attacked both DeSantis and Vance for waiting until after the election to criticize the administration.
‘The vice president to me has no credibility,’ Christie told Politico.
‘He’s been sitting in the White House now for the last two years — haven’t heard him say a negative word, you know, until this past Wednesday, and he limited it just to the war in Iran, which is not the only problem we have here.’
Christie also criticized DeSantis for repeatedly changing his position on Trump.
‘Now he wants to be critical,’ Christie said. ‘I think the governor is getting ready to leave office, and he’s looking for a way to be relevant and I think he looks like he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth.’
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who challenged Trump for president in 2024, blamed the war, high prices and weak candidates, including Ohio gubernatorial loser Vivek Ramaswamy
Christie declared that ‘the Trump era is over’ and blamed the president for Republican losses in his state, where only one of 12 members of Congress will be a Republican in January.
In Texas, Senator Ted Cruz watched the state experience the worst of the blue wave, leaving him as the only Republican elected statewide.
The former presidential candidate said the Republican Party had failed to address voters’ concerns about affordability.
‘That is very real pain from real Americans, and too many Republican politicians seem like they didn’t understand or they didn’t care,’ Cruz said on social media.
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‘Food is too high, gas is too high, diesel is too high, insurance is too high, life is too high.’
Steve Bannon, sometimes called the Godfather of MAGA, turned his criticism toward Trump administration officials and conservative media figures.
He blamed Fox News, particularly Sean Hannity, for supporting candidates such as Darline Graham. Bannon also questioned whether Pete Hegseth should remain in his position after the failures of the Iran War.
‘We’re talking about a kinetic war. We’re talking about actually going to a war against the Persians, and here we are a long way from victory,’ Bannon said angrily.
‘Who’s accountable for that? Is [Trump], or is that, the head of the Department of War, or is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff?’
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who ran against Trump in 2016, sharply criticized both DeSantis and Vance for their attacks on the administration
Senator Ted Cruz watched Texas succumb to the worst of the blue wave, leaving him the state’s only Republican statewide elected official
John Solomon, a conservative commentator for Real America’s Voice and a former Fox News employee, argued that Fox’s era as the leading voice of right-wing opinion had passed.
‘I do think some of the mainstays of the Republican Party, the Fox News, the Christian coalition, they frayed in this election,’ Solomon said.
‘There’s still a coalition to be regathered, but tonight, it fractured and it fractured under very clear circumstances, the economy and not sticking to your promises and bad candidates in some cases.’
He said the party’s problems were ‘very fixable for 2028, but some sort of conversation has to happen in the Fox News style of having that conversation with Republicans. That era is over.’
On Fox News, Dana Perino questioned whether the Trump era—and MAGA itself—might be coming to an end.
‘I would say no political movement lasts forever. And President Trump’s was longer because of the interruption in his two terms, right? Because of the Biden thing. So it’s a much longer time,’ Perino said.
Hannity, in an ironic twist, called for a truce among conservatives and expressed frustration with the infighting.
‘My message tonight is all hands on deck, stay away from circular firing squads, finger-pointing, blame,’ Hannity said on his Fox News show.
‘Allow Democrats to show their true colors as they are now doing; have real answers on the other side.’
Sean Hannity called for a ceasefire among conservatives and voiced disappointment over the Republican infighting
John Solomon, a conservative commentator for Real America’s Voice and longtime Trump supporter, said Fox News had lost its place as the leading voice of right-wing opinion
Hannity has also acknowledged that the war and the cost-of-living crisis may have contributed to the Republican defeat.
On Wednesday, it emerged that members of Trump’s team were questioning whether he had backed the right candidates, including Darline Graham, Ken Paxton and Michael Whatley.
‘I have seen the enemy and it is us,’ said James Blair, who was responsible for overseeing the president’s midterm strategy.
‘In many places,’ added Tony Fabrizio, the president’s chief pollster.
Other members of the MAGA movement refused to criticize their own party.
Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt faced backlash after claiming that voters did not understand how much money they had in their pockets.
‘Unfortunately, I think the American people forgot about the good policy, maybe listened to the lying media on the other side that is definitely in the back seat of the Democrat Party,’ Leavitt said.
She argued that Democrats had offered no policy solutions and maintained that Trump’s tax cuts had left Americans with more money.
‘They got more money in their pockets because of the president’s tax cuts,’ she insisted.
Mark Levin (pictured left) directed his criticism at the vice president over the failed ceasefire Vance negotiated with Iran
Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, attributed his political difficulties to the time he spent out of office and blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden.
‘The way this president has set things up will not take effect immediately,’ she told Fox News. ‘It takes a long time to rebuild from the Biden years, from the destruction the Democrats themselves caused to this country,’ she added.
In a late-night interview with Fox News as the results came in, Trump acknowledged that he had been surprised by the scale of the Democratic victory.
‘I’m a little bit surprised, I thought they’d [the Republicans] do better,’ he said, before highlighting the enormous crowds drawn to his campaign rallies.
‘Look, they got out for the rallies. You never saw rallies that big. I mean, outside of the rallies I have, when I have, you know, the general election, which is you know, a step above. In all fairness, like maybe a few steps above. Outside of that, I mean, these were the biggest rallies ever,’ he said.
‘Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. I left every one of those states, and the places were packed with thousands, and in some cases tens of thousands of people outside, trying to get in and having to watch a jumbotron, as they call it.’
Trump quickly rejected the idea that his falling approval ratings were responsible for the losses.
‘They didn’t like the candidates…. this MAGA base is incredible, the most loyal people, the greatest people, the people that built America.
Longtime Trump supporter and former White House adviser Steve Bannon criticized members of the Trump cabinet and conservative media figures
‘I was trying to get people in that were people that frankly I didn’t get along with. But for purposes of the party I went along with it, and the base would tell me… sir they weren’t for you.’
He suggested that some Republican candidates had failed to motivate their supporters to vote.
‘In other cases they just didn’t inspire the people to get out and vote,’ Trump said. ‘And I wasn’t on the ballot. If I was on the ballot, they would have gotten out.’
Despite the magnitude of the Republican losses, Trump offered some praise for his Democratic opponents.
‘I think the Democrats did a good job, I really do…. They fought hard. They’ve been fighting me for a long time.’
‘I don’t like to consider it a defeat for me. I wasn’t on the ballot,’ he said.
Amid mounting pressure the following day, Trump conceded that Vance’s assessment had been ‘largely true,’ adding: ‘It drove the gasoline up a little bit – short term – and probably that’s true.’
Some Republicans blamed Hegseth (pictured right) for his handling of the Iran War
He nevertheless remained defiant about the decision to attack Tehran, insisting that it had been worth the cost.
‘If I had to do it again, I’d have to do it again because long term, that’s the only answer. You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,’ he said.
Democrats had gained 40 House seats, with 27 races still undecided, along with seven Senate seats. Two additional Senate contests were still leaning their way.
The party flipped Senate seats in states where it had not won in decades, including Texas and South Carolina, as well as Kansas in what was described as a once-in-a-century victory.
Democrats could still capture two more Senate seats in Mississippi and Alaska if late-counted ballots break in their favor.
They also won the governor’s mansion in 29 states, giving the party a majority for the first time in 16 years.
Democrats further expanded their control of state government by gaining “trifectas” in several states, meaning they now hold the governorship and majorities in both legislative chambers.
