Donald Trump on US midterms: how has he reacted to Republican midterm election results, has he blamed Melania?

The US midterm elections brought up some interesting and unexpected results on election night. While some states are still to declare for some races, with results not expected for at least a few days, the Republicans are already looking at an outcome worse than they projected.

Former President Donald Trump had handpicked many nominees for a range of different seats, including in the Senate and House of Representatives. However, many of these Congress hopefuls fell short of winning approval from voters.

Trump-backed candidates such as Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano failed to gain seats in Pennsylvania, while Kari Lake, a once likely candidate for Trump’s presidential running-mate in 2024, trails Democratic governor candidate Katie Hobbs in Arizona. One of the issues uniting many of the former president’s picks was election denial, spreading Trump’s unfounded claims that Joe Biden had not legitimately won the 2020 election.

The underwhelming results and the no-show of the so-called ‘red wave’ has left the Republican Party scratching their heads over what went wrong. However, Trump has reportedly been left fuming over his party’s position.

But what did Trump say about the results - and did he blame his wife for the poor showing? Here’s everything you need to know about Trump’s reaction to the midterms.

How did Donald Trump react to the US midterm elections?

According to an advisor of the former president, Trump was said to be “livid” with the results as they came in on Tuesday (8 November) evening. Following the mediocre performance, he was also said to have been “screaming at everyone”, however he told his social media followers on Truth Social that it had been a “great evening”.

While Trump was said to be visibly angry about election, many within the party believed it should have come as no surprise given the calibre of Republican candidates. His adviser said: “Candidates matter. They were all bad candidates.”

While many may assume that the Democratic performance may be the reason for his tantrum over the results, there may be a reason within the party that he is angry the election didn’t swing dramatically for the Republicans. While Trump-backed candidates failed in many states, the party did still make gains and held onto seats, most notably Ron DeSantis won re-election to serve a second term as Governor of Florida.

DeSantis has been touted as a potentially more palatable candidate for the Republican nomination for president, despite Trump hinting at his intention to launch a bid once again. A source close to the party told ABC News: "This [election] was the end of the Trump era and the dawn of the DeSantis era. Like every other Trump catastrophe, he did this to himself with stupid and reckless decisions."

Has Trump blamed Melania for the midterm election results?

Trump’s fury over the results has reportedly boiled over to his personal life. Most notably, sources have said that he had taken out his anger on his wife, Melania.

The former president is said to have blamed both Melania and Fox News host Sean Hannity for advising him to back some of the failed candidates, including celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. Oz had fought a close Senate race against Democratic candidate John Fetterman, however Fetterman was eventually declared winner with 50.8% of the vote.

Melania and Hannity weren’t the only people to allegedly face the anger of Trump. He is also said to have blamed some of his aides for their advice in backing candidates who failed to gain seats in the election.

Has Trump responded to the claims?

The Independent has reported that Trump took to his Truth Social platform to denounce the reports, he also called himself a “stable genius”. He said: “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.

“ 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,’”