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Trump Looks to Deflect Midterm Blame 11/05 06:28
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump reacted Wednesday to Republicans'
midterm election losses by showing off the White House ballroom he's building
as he demonstrated the kind of detached behavior that voters around the country
said was a key reason they opted to punish his party.
In an extraordinary scene, Trump summoned reporters to the hulking
construction site that he demolished the East Wing to make room for and the
Republican president spoke for nearly 20 minutes about minute building details.
He did not mention his party losing control of Congress after defeats in some
of the country's deepest GOP strongholds, including Texas and South Carolina,
or voter concerns about the high cost of living and federal corruption that
helped cause the election losses.
"This has been a structure the likes of which has never been seen anywhere,"
Trump said, speaking into a microphone that sent loud feedback echoing around
the cavernous space.
He talked at length about how the ballroom would be the "safest place in
Washington" upon completion, stretching five stories underground and featuring
a cut of marble that he called "a vein that people have been after for 50
years."
"We have large staircases coming from the kitchen. If I put the kitchen on
top, you would lose three walls, because a kitchen takes about 30% of the
space," Trump said of his choice to make the ballroom's kitchen subterranean.
"It's going to be top of the line," he added.
This is not what presidents normally talk about the day after an election
Presidents usually speak with reporters the day after the midterms. It's
normal for those whose party endured big losses to shoulder publicly at least
part of the responsibility.
But not Trump.
He began the day with a schedule that showed only private meetings, then
suggested he had decided at the last minute to invite the press to watch as the
final steel beam -- topped with a small evergreen tree symbolizing growth and
luck -- was hoisted into place on the ballroom roof.
Trump signed the beam with a marker during the ceremony, writing "Love!"
followed by his name in supersize letters.
His appearance came after midterm voters said they thought the president was
focused on the wrong issues. About two-thirds of voters said Trump does not
have the right priorities, according to The AP Voter Poll, and the overwhelming
majority of these voters supported Democratic House candidates.
The post-midterm ceremony might also reinforce voter concerns about whether
Trump, 80, is up for the rigors of the presidency.
Biden dropped out of his reelection race in 2024 after a disastrous debate
with Trump, who even today frequently mocks Biden's mental and physical acuity.
Trump seeks to shift blame for the midterms
Trump eventually took questions at the ballroom site and attempted to duck
responsibility for the broad Republican losses. He insisted he didn't lead the
party into an Election Day drubbing despite staging a flurry of rallies where
he implored supporters to pretend that he was on the ballot.
"If I were on the ballot I would have won," Trump insisted.
He said campaign rallies in mostly Republican states or conservative parts
of more closely divided ones featured enthusiastic crowds "but we weren't able
to transfer love to the candidates."
The beam-raising was not his first baffling political moment this week. On
Monday, Trump gave his closing message of the midterm cycle in a long speech at
the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, shining a spotlight at a pivotal time on
a project marred by algae, leaks and delays.
"I heard it was a very good speech, got great reviews," he said on Wednesday.
Ducking responsibility is common with Trump
An Associated Press analysis of the 39 Trump speeches and rallies that Trump
staged between Sept. 1 and Election Day showed the president used phrasing
suggesting he was on the ballot in 30 of them. In some addresses he returned to
the subject more than once, though, meaning there were at least 40 instances
where he appealed to voters to engage in that bit of make-believe.
But as the extent of his party's defeat became apparent on election night,
Trump was deflecting blame.
"I don't like to consider it a defeat for me. I wasn't on the ballot," he
told Fox News Channel. Voters, he said, just "didn't like the candidates" on
the ballot. The Voter Poll suggests Trump himself was a drag on GOP politicians
and that in some races, candidates were seen as too supportive of the unpopular
president.
Trump has a long history of passing the buck, on issues large and small,
especially when there are ballot-box failures.
After Republicans lost the House in the 2018 midterms during Trump's first
term, he blamed defeated members of his own party.
Utah Rep. Mia Love, who had tried to distance herself from him, "gave me no
love, but then she lost. Too bad," the president said, while also mocking other
losing lawmakers for not embracing him -- Florida's Carlos Curbelo, Colorado's
Mike Coffman, Virginia's Barbara Comstock, and Illinois' Peter Roskam.
That's in contrast to how Democrat Barack Obama described his party's losses
in 2010 as "a shellacking" or Republican George W. Bush described Democratic
victories in the 2006 midterms as "a thumping."
But Trump, known for defying all kinds of presidential norms, began laying
the groundwork for avoiding blame this cycle well before balloting began.
He told Punchbowl News in August that voters were angry at Republicans "but
they're not angry at me."
The president posted on his social media site last month that should Texas
Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton lose -- and he did -- "it will be
because of WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Political Hacks like John Cornyn and Karl
Rove." That's despite Trump's risky endorsement of scandal-marred Paxton in the
primary over incumbent Cornyn, who first got to the Senate in 2002 and was
considered the safer bet. Rove is a political strategist who helped Bush win
the White House.
Also losing Tuesday was Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a longtime Trump ally.
Trump posted on social media that if Abbott "hadn't become a RINO in the
last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn't have lost," suggesting the
governor had backed away from his staunchly conservative credentials and become
"Republican in Name Only."
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