The US midterm elections: a crisis between Trump and his critics within the Republican Party because of the failure

Republicans still favor winning the House of Representatives, which would severely hamper President Joe Biden’s plans, but their potential majority shrinks as the vote count continues.

Over the weekend, US networks predicted that Democrats would take two Senate seats in Arizona and Nevada, and retain control of the upper chamber.

“This is the third election in a row that Trump has cost us the outcome,” Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland who has been a frequent critic of Trump during his presidency, told CNN on Sunday.

He added, “(Trump) said we’re going to get tired of winning. Well, I’m tired of losing.”

But the real test, says the BBC’s North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher, is whether Trump’s allies will turn against him in the coming days and weeks.

History indicates that the party that controls the White House usually loses seats in the midterm elections, and the Democrats’ performance this year is the best for a party that has been in power for at least 20 years.

“The experts in Washington said we can’t win because of history, history, history,” House Speaker and California Democrat Nancy Pelosi told this week’s ABC program.

She explained that the Democrats “never accepted experts” and focused on “the contradiction between them and their opponents.”

Pelosi was among a group of party officials on Sunday who endorsed President Biden for re-election in 2024.

Anita Dunn, a senior White House adviser, told CBS News that the president has not been affected by “what the other side is doing or what another candidate might do,” and will announce his decision soon.

She added that the midterm results were “of great importance” to the party’s agenda and Biden believed he was “the best person to continue the progress we’ve made.”

And if Biden runs again, he is likely to enter a new competition with Trump, who defeated him in the 2020 elections, and Trump is expected to officially announce his decision to compete for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, next Tuesday.

Trump’s potential announcement could upend old loyalties within the party, as some of the former president’s allies attack his critics, most notably Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“The Republican mark, which fell because of Mitch McConnell, is not exciting, it is not convincing, it is not convincing to voters,” Stephen Miller, a former White House adviser to Trump, told Fox News Sunday.