Donald Trump is the reason for the midterm Republican let down

Well, that was an embarrassment. In what is and should be the death of the Trump era, Republicans fell flat on their faces in a midterm election that should have been a red wave with record inflation, crime and illegal immigration on the minds of voters.

This mess starts and ends with former President Donald Trump – this was his red failure. The former president made this entire midterm about himself, and it’s time for the Make America Great Again movement to die.

Trump spent a whopping $14.8 million on Senate races this midterm election despite raising $161 million that he can now use for whatever he wants — another losing presidential bid, perhaps. Mitch McConnell spent $238 million on candidates, yet Trump has the nerve to label McConnell a “RINO” – a Republican in name only – call for him to be impeached and mock his wife.

McConnell accomplished one of Trump’s objectives – the overturning of Roe v. Wade – and propped up Trump’s horrible candidates for him. How is he the RINO? Trump’s attempt at a mutiny to remove McConnell from Republican Senate leadership is really his attempt to put the blame on somebody else.

Trump also picked other political fights with fellow Republicans, trying to play kingmaker in several primaries just for his handpicked candidates to lose. There are too many to list, but a quick Google search on Pennsylvania tells you all you need to know.

“Well, I think if they (Republicans) win, I should get all the credit. If they lose, I should not be blamed at all,” Trump said in an election night interview with NewsNation.

When he wasn’t avoiding blame on election night, Trump was “truthing” celebrations of losing Republican candidates on his failed social media site Truth Social.

“Joe O’Dea lost BIG! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Trump wrote.

He was referring to the moderate Republican Senate candidate Joe O’Dea, who lost to incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado. O’Dea, a vocal Trump critic, as is the blue state he was running to represent, clashed with the former president many times on the campaign trail. It looks like Trump’s idea of making American great again means electing a Democratic senator over a Republican who doesn’t lick his boots.

One of these disagreements stemmed from Trump’s requirement that his endorsees go along with his “Big Lie” claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Election-denying candidates up and down ballots across the country were strongly repudiated this midterm – again, too many to list. Voters outside the Trump base think those people are bonkers and simply did not vote for them.

How can anyone still think Trump is an asset to the Republican Party after this midterm? Heck, make that Jan. 6, 2021.

As kingmaker of the current Republican Party, Trump is responsible for this red recession. His fingerprints are all over this GOP disaster. This midterm was a clear rejection of the MAGA movement and election denialism. 

Not a single one of Trump’s yes-men performed well – not a single one.

Do you want to know which Republican dominated election day without Trump’s help? Ron “DeFuture” DeSantis coasted to a 20% win in the Florida governor’s race in a state Trump won by 3% in 2020.

And just a year ago, Gov. Glenn Youngkin won when Trump sat quietly on the sidelines during his shocking win in Virginia. Yet, in a last-ditch attempt to keep himself at the top of the party he destroyed, Trump has gone on a smear campaign against these two successful Republican governors and countless other Republicans.

This loss was worse for Republicans than anyone might think – the unintended consequences are astounding and far-reaching. This outcome gives Democrats and the Biden administration the impression that the American people are happy with what they have done to the country, which is far from true. 

When Biden was recently asked what he will do differently after the elections, he said, “Nothing.”

Democrats still have a majority in the Senate, and they will likely only be a few-seat minority in the House against a fractured GOP. They walk away with hardly a scratch after these midterm elections.

The Republican Party needs to wake up. It is long past time to move on from former President Donald Trump. Republicans have fallen flat in 2018, 2020, 2022 and potentially 2024 because of Trump. Reverse course, or else the party is doomed.

This isn’t “something a Democrat would say.” This is calling out the person that has actively butchered Republicans’ chances at success in election cycles time after time. How could this be any more pro-Republican of a stance?

Trump’s upcoming “big announcement” needs to be announcing his retirement from politics forever.

Browder is the opinion editor for the Liberty Champion

Correction: Keaton made many incorrect predictions about the midterm elections last issue. He had too much faith in the American people and the Republican Party. He is very sorry.