Donald Trump is ‘livid, fuming, screaming’ about the GOP’s midterm collapse

The midterm elections were bad for Donald Trump at almost every level. Trump’s dream of a red wave propelling his 2024 re-election is now dead in the water. There was no red wave, and many of the Trump-endorsed candidates lost, sometimes not even in particularly tight races. Worse yet, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won reelection handily and DeSantis is now being touted as the face of the new, post-Trump Republican Party. DeSantis isn’t any better or worse than Trump, he’s just… Trump-as-Florida-governor. All of the same evil policies, all of the same racism and misogyny, just in a different package.

The NY Times ran a sad-sack story about Trumpland post-election and how Trump’s efforts were all for naught. Maggie Haberman co-authored the piece, which means that the actual awful destructiveness of everything around Trump was soft-pedaled to the extreme, almost as if the Times’s official position on Trump is set to “wistful longing.” Other political reporting went a bit deeper, thankfully. From ABC News:

Bigly fuming: Sources close to Trump described him as “fuming” at his Mar-a-Lago estate Tuesday night as GOP candidates he had backed started to lose or underperform. In addition, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ strong performance in Trump’s adopted home state was a wakeup call for some Trump advisers, sources said. DeSantis, seen as a potential 2024 presidential rival for Trump, easily won reelection. “This is a sinking ship,” one top Trump adviser told ABC News. “We’re not going to beat that.”

The dawn of the DeSantis era: “This was the end of the Trump era and the dawn of the DeSantis era,” a Republican operative close to the Trump orbit told ABC News. “Like every other Trump catastrophe, he did this to himself with stupid and reckless decisions.”

Bigly unhappy with Melania: Sources say Trump has been angry with his wife, Melania, and Fox News host Sean Hannity, for pushing Trump to endorse Oz. The former president is also blaming aides for misguiding him on some of his other endorsements.

The saddest treason war-room: As the results came in, the phones of Trump’s top political aides began ringing off the hook — and by the end of the night only a handful of aides remained around him, sources told ABC News. As the night progressed, Trump told top aides he wasn’t particularly interested in addressing the crowd he had gathered there, although he did end up speaking for a few minutes, telling the crowd that the numbers were “amazing” so far.

When he’ll announce his 2024 run: Trump announced on Monday that he planned to make a “big announcement” next week about plans for his 2024 presidential run. Some close to Trump told ABC News they hope the vague nature of the statement could give him an escape hatch should he decide not to run. But others who have spoken with Trump say he’s unlikely to renege on his plans because he’s spent the last two years teasing a run, official announcement or not. “Hard to back out now,” one adviser said.

[From ABC News]

I’m sorry, but he’s going to announce his candidacy for 2024 just because it would be too tough to renege on his bigly plans? That’s some Elon Musk-esque strategizing. “I can’t actually afford to buy Twitter for $44 billion but I also don’t want to admit that I’m broke-ass, so sure, I’ll buy it!” And now we’ve got “I know no one wants what I have to offer but I’m going to run for president anyway, just because I can’t admit that I suck!” I’m also just… shocked? Shocked that Melania would even chime in about Dr. Oz, shocked that Trump’s advisors are admitting that the SS Hamberder Fart Machine is dead in the water. Shocked that DeSantis managed to outmaneuver Trump so effectively too.

LOL, inject this into my veins:

This adviser said it’s unlikely Trump would delay his expected presidential announcement because “it’s too humiliating to delay.” But the adviser said there are too many unknowns at this point.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 9, 2022

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.