Trump believes midterm results would have been different if he were on the ballot. Then he gets reminded that he picked the candidates in many cases

President Donald Trump said in a 60 Minutes interview that the Republican Party’s losses in last week’s midterm elections might have looked different if his name had appeared on the ballot. Correspondent Ross Douthat pressed him on the results during an extended conversation that aired Sunday evening. Democrats took control of both the House and the Senate after multiple seats changed hands.

The shifts occurred even though Trump-backed redistricting plans had been put in place in several Republican-leaning states. Other races once viewed as safe for the GOP also flipped by wide margins. In Texas, Democrats won every statewide contest, a number of judicial seats, and a majority in the State House.

Douthat opened the exchange by noting that Trump had “won a big, some might say historic victory” in 2024, yet the party had just “suffered a big, some might say, historic defeat.” He asked for Trump’s view of what went wrong. Trump answered that he himself had not been on the ballot, though he campaigned for others and drew large crowds.

Trump discusses rallies, gas prices, wars, and specific candidate endorsements

“Well, number one, I was not on the ballot,” Trump said. “But I campaigned hard for some people. And – I think if I was on the ballot, it would’ve been a much different situation because you saw the level of popularity and love,” he added.

Trump went on: “There was love. I mean, we had massive rallies. Nobody’s ever seen rallies like that for midterms. And – there wasn’t one room that didn’t have thousands of people outside, couldn’t get in. So – you had to transfer those voters, however, to candidates that they didn’t like. But there’s something beyond that.” Right after the midterms, Trump made the same claim on Truth Social as well.

He added that voters “didn’t like the war” and “didn’t like the fact that gasoline went up.” Trump claimed he had brought prices “down at a low” before the conflict, “lower than Biden, lower than Obama, but the war was blamed for that.” He also said there was “a great dislike, incredibly, for Israel” and that the fighting and fuel costs were the main reasons for the outcome.

Trump stated he had “settled eight wars,” including a potential India-Pakistan clash. He said 11 planes had been shot down and that “the prime minister of Pakistan said, ‘Trump saved 30-50 million lives.’” Douthat later noted that Trump had previously called it difficult to pass his own support on to other candidates. The president replied, “yeah.”

Douthat pointed out that Trump had chosen many of the nominees himself. He named Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who lost to State Rep. James Talarico, and South Carolina Sen. Darline Graham, appointed after her brother Lindsey Graham’s death and then defeated by Dr. Annie Andrews. “You picked – you endorsed Ken Paxton in Texas,” Douthat said.

Trump acknowledged Paxton’s struggles, but said “Cornyn would’ve lost also,” referring to Sen. John Cornyn, who had supported him on nearly every vote yet lost the primary runoff to Paxton. Of Graham, Trump said, “Darline, I did that in honor of a man named Lindsey, who was a friend of mine. Good politician, good guy. A very good guy. And she fought hard. She fought hard. She really did.” Douthat replied that she had lost a heavily Republican state to a liberal opponent.

Trump then listed his own past margins. He said he won South Carolina and Texas by the highest vote totals in history and that he had endorsed Byron Donalds for Florida governor and Ashley Moody for Senate. “And, had I not endorsed them, they wouldn’t have won ’cause there was a wave,” he said. He also mentioned Ohio’s Jon Husted, who he said was down 15 points yet finished only about a point behind, and noted that he himself had carried Ohio by the most votes ever.

“But why can’t it transfer?” Douthat asked, recalling Trump’s line that voters should “Vote like I’m on the ballot.” Trump answered, “It didn’t transfer. Yeah. It didn’t…” and later added, “I think they didn’t vote, really. I think they didn’t vote. I think in some cases, they didn’t like the candidates. And that’s, you know, their prerogative.”

Sen. John Cornyn later told Mediaite that he had beaten MJ Hegar by 9.6 points in 2020 while Trump carried Texas by 5.6 points. He wrote that Trump “was an albatross around all Republicans necks” and that Paxton “never had a good response to the corruption charges, which were all true,” leading some Republicans to back Talarico or stay home. Cornyn, who backs a probe into Trump Jr., called the midterms “a referendum on the president with predictable results.”