Trump Blames Fox News for Midterm Losses, Announces Career Change to Political Pundit

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has identified the cause of the Republican losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections. It is Fox News.

Shortly after the Senate was projected to flip to Democrats, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Fox News “bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on” the Democratic opposition, “and worse,” TheWrap reported. Anadolu Agency reported the same post.

He singled out former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Trump questioned why the network let him appear on air and offer advice on governing the country, Anadolu reported.

In a separate post, Trump said he would “become a Political Pundit” and share “the reasons these Candidates won and lost,” according to TheWrap. Editor & Publisher also reported the plan.

This would put the president in direct competition with Fox News. Industry observers have not yet ruled on whether that is a merger.

The ballot question

Earlier Tuesday evening, Trump had offered a different explanation. “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE,” he wrote on Truth Social, TheWrap reported.

The White House said much the same to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “President Trump was not on the ballot and it’s proven that Trump voters show up when he is on the ballot,” the statement read, according to TheWrap.

Fox News was not on the ballot either. This bureau checked.

The coverage

Trump spent part of the night watching the network he would later blame. He also criticized its polling. “The Fox News Poll, always the worst, is so insulting with the questions they ask,” he wrote, according to TheWrap.

In another post, he cited a CNN poll he said ranked him ahead of Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln among Republican presidents, TheWrap reported. Lincoln did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump also called in to Fox News on Tuesday night, NewsNation reported. On the air, he blamed high gas prices and the candidates. “I think it was the gas prices,” he told the network, according to NewsNation. So the network that bears responsibility also carried the first draft of the explanation.

A representative for Fox News did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

The analysis

This reporter has covered eleven administrations. Most of them lost a midterm. I cannot recall one that filed the loss under a cable channel.

My most trusted source, Deep Throat Lozenge, called the new punditry plan a natural fit. “He was already on every channel,” Lozenge said. “Now he gets a title.”

Democrats will hold both chambers in January. The president will hold the remote.