Election debacle for Trump Hangover in the White House

What an election disaster for Donald Trump: his Republicans lose important votes in New York City, California, Virginia and New Jersey. The defeats were inevitable. Not only in the polls, but also because Trump is apparently making the same mistake as Joe Biden.

A political earthquake is shaking the USA. Whether it's the mayoralty in New York City or the governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia, the Democrats are beating the Republicans in all the elections that are currently up for decision.

The defeats are bitter, as the example of Virginia shows: Not only has Abigail Spanberger been appointed as the new governor there. In the state parliament, the Democrats have greatly increased their majority from 51 to 49 seats. They now hold 64 seats, while the Republican group has shrunk to 36 seats.

The Democrats have not had such a majority in Virginia for almost 40 years. And the election result in New Jersey is similarly clear: after counting 95% of the ballots, Democrat Mikie Sherrill has 1,792,760 votes, 414,369 votes ahead of Republican Jack Ciattarelli, who apparently had no chance at the ballot box.

4 votes - 4 defeats for Trump

For Donald Trump, however, this is probably just the tip of the iceberg. In his native city of New York, the electorate elected Democrat Zohran Mamdani as the next mayor, whom the US president was determined to prevent at all costs.

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"And so it begins," the 79-year-old wrote cryptically on his Truth Social platform: he had previously threatened to withdraw federal funding from the city if Mamdani won. Trump suffered his next defeat in California, where voters approved California Proposition 50.

This allows Governor Gavin Newsom to redraw the electoral districts to produce five new Democratic representatives. This is intended to counter a similar move by the Republicans in Texas and maintain the balance in the House of Representatives - see also the video above.

Election debacle: Trump washes his hands of it

According to Donald Trump, one person is not to blame for this election debacle: Donald Trump. The fact that "Trump wasn't on the ballot" sealed the Republicans' defeat in addition to the shutdown, writes the president, referring to polls.

That is surprising. Not because Trump doesn't want to take responsibility for the election results, but rather because Trump has just complained about those very same fake polls: "The radical left-wing media shows so many fake polls, all heavily biased towards Democrats and radical left-wingers," he writes.

And: "In the fair polls and even in the reasonable polls, I have the best numbers I've ever had, and why shouldn't I?" But that's not true: even the "Rasmussen Report", which claims to be independent but has a bias towards the Republicans, only gives the president a 46 percent approval rating, while 53 percent disapprove of him.

Polls speak a clear language

On January 23, Trump still had a 56 percent approval rating with Rasmussen. After his tariff announcement in April, it was 47 percent. His numbers "are dropping, especially among independents, as you would expect in a shutdown," emphasizes Mark Mitchell of Rasmussen when asked by "Newsweek". This is bad, but not a disaster.

The figures for other institutes are even worse. Real Clear Polling averages the results: The figure currently stands at 43.3 percent approval and 54.4 percent disapproval. On January 27, the average figures were still 50.5% with a positive opinion and 44.3% with a negative opinion.

So the election debacle was on the cards, but how did the negative figures come about? When Trump claims that he has the best numbers, he justifies this statement as follows: "I have created eight wars, the greatest economy in the history of our country and kept prices, inflation and taxes low."

Cost of living remains high

This is somewhat reminiscent of Joe Biden's time in office: Back then, the government also told the people that the economy was doing well and inflation was within limits. Donald Trump's election victory in 2024 is closely linked to his promises to limit inflation and lower prices.

Now the situation seems to have been reversed: The 47th president constantly emphasizes that inflation is low and that consumer prices are falling - except for meat. However, the reality of shopping looks different: The cost of living remains at a high level. The situation is being exacerbated by Trump's tariffs and the shutdown.

"This election was really about the economy," Sabrina Siddiqui from the Wall Street Journal confirmed to Times Radio. "In a way, it's back to basics. The focus on affordability, the level of retail prices, the cost of gas and housing."

Is Trump making the same mistake as Biden?

The common thread in the recent elections was that the Democratic candidates focused on these economic issues. Trump has not delivered: "I believe that voters' dissatisfaction with his performance so far will have a big impact on the results."

The reporter gave the interview before it was clear how severe the election debacle would be for the 79-year-old. The result confirms her prediction and suggests that Trump is now actually on the same wrong track that brought down his predecessor: "Trump denies that inflation is hurting Americans. It's the same mistake that haunted Biden," headlines CNN.

This trend is likely to be reinforced by the fact that the majority of the population blames the Republicans for the shutdown. At the same time, Trump rages that food aid will be given to anyone who asks for it. Despite court orders to the contrary, he will only release funds for this if the Democrats wave through his so-called Big Beautiful Bill.

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The US President is not making any friends with this.

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