Trump changes course and questions if election was ‘honest’

President Donald Trump reversed course and questioned the integrity of midterm elections that swept Democrats to victory in a string of Republican strongholds and handed them control of both the House and Senate.“Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Monday. “How could the Polls be so wrong???”“Some early voting ‘dumps’ were so large that it was impossible to win, no matter how many people went to vote,” he added. “It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!”The comments were a departure from Trump’s initial response to Tuesday’s results, when he congratulated Democrats on their victories and acknowledged that the GOP’s messaging had failed to resonate with voters.His remarks echoed his longstanding, unsubstantiated claims that Democrats “rigged” and “stole” the 2020 presidential election. He has continued to undermine confidence in the nation’s election system during his second term, attacking its integrity on most days.(Getty)Many polls had forecast a strong Election Day for Democrats, suggesting they could reclaim both chambers of Congress amid voter frustration over the Iran war and the cost of living.But Democrats outperformed a number of those forecasts. As of Monday, they were projected to win 54 Senate seats to Republicans’ 44 and 253 House seats to the GOP’s 160, with some races still uncalled.On election night, as it became clear that Democrats would usher in two years of divided government, Trump called into Fox News and applauded the opposition party for a race well fought. “Congratulations to the Democrats, they did a good job,” the 80-year-old president said. “They’ve been looking for this one for 11 years, and they finally got it.”The president also sought to deflect blame by noting that he was not on the ballot — a sharp contrast to his repeated appeals at rallies over the past month for Americans to “pretend I am on the ballot.” He instead faulted what he described as lackluster Republican candidates.In an interview with 60 Minutes taped Friday, Trump also acknowledged “bad messaging” on issues including the economy and conceded that his immigration crackdown had at times been “too tough.”Throughout those appearances, the president made no claims of election fraud — a departure that surprised some Democrats accustomed to his election denialism.Their surprise was heightened by the administration’s efforts ahead of the midterms to intervene in state-run elections, including its push to have California set aside ballots from roughly 20,000 voters whose citizenship it had questioned.But in the days before Trump’s Monday post, there were signs he might allege foul play.Over the weekend, he amplified posts on Truth Social questioning the midterm results. One asserted that Democratic victories and GOP losses across numerous states followed a similar pattern, presenting that as grounds to demand “answers at the ballot level.”Some political observers anticipated that Trump and his supporters would question the integrity of the 2026 midterms, even if they did not do so immediately.“Tuesday was not a good night for Republicans,” former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer wrote on X Saturday. “It’s been 4 days and no protests, riots and vandalism..”Semafor reporter David Weigel responded with a reference to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot: “Traditionally, that happens in early January. Not November.”