Media Must Call the Midterms a Repudiation of Trump

Voters just handed Democrats control of the House and Senate, flipping seven Senate seats Trump carried before. Republicans know why: one senior Senate GOP official told Politico, “Trump did this.” Trump called Fox News to dispute the polls and claimed he’d had the “greatest two years in the history of the presidency.”

Too much coverage will file this under ordinary midterm politics: pendulum swings, weak candidates, internal GOP drama. A White House adviser blamed “uninspiring” candidates, yet the NRCC chair lost his own seat, and Speaker Mike Johnson is stepping out of leadership. Fox host Bret Baier even told Trump that the results matched Fox’s own polls.

This was a rebuke of an administration defined by a costly Iran war, high prices, and corruption. We call on the media to report it honestly, as a national repudiation of Trump, and to say plainly when he denies it. The public deserves coverage that reflects what voters actually said, not the story Trump wants told.