Trump congratulates Democrats in election night call with CBS News

By Weijia Jiang Senior White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang is the senior White House correspondent for CBS News based in Washington, D.C. Jiang has covered the White House beat since 2018, including the transitions between presidential administrations. In 2023, Jiang won an Emmy Award for her contributions to "CBS Mornings." Read Full Bio Updated on: November 3, 2026 / 11:47 PM EST / CBS News Add CBS News on Google President Trump congratulated Democrats on their midterm election victories in a phone call with CBS News."My message is, congratulations to the Democrats, and I look forward to working with you for the good of our country," he said.The president said he plans to work with the opposing party saying, "I know a lot of Democrats, I have total veto power and I'm sure we'll be able to work things out.""I think they're gonna want to work with me," he said. "Otherwise I'd just veto everything and they're not gonna want that."The president insisted that so many Republicans lost because he wasn't on the ballot. "I feel that I wasn't on the ballot, and there was nothing that could be done about that," he said. "If I was, we would have won."Explaining the losses for Republicans, the president added: "In some cases they didn't like the candidates, and in some cases those candidates were not my friend and the base knows that better than anybody. And they stayed back. They didn't have — I mean, it's just, it's sad in the sense that we would have won easily if I was on the ballot. But I wasn't." Asked if he is upset, he said he "tried hard" and "left it on the field""I tried to help people get elected, and they were not elected, they couldn't get elected," he said. "The people didn't come out as they should have. If I were on the ballot they would have been out. But they didn't. It's just one of those things, you know? It's a point in time. Happened many times before."Separately, the president said the Iran war would be over "when I say it's over, basically. It'll end when I say it ends." In: Donald Trump Election