Trump labeled a lame duck after Democrats win the Senate in midterm elections

Donald Trump lashed out online after a bruising set of midterm results for Republicans, which many also viewed as a referendum on his own popularity. Democrats won control of the US Senate in a major setback for Trump’s Republican Party after the midterm elections. As results came in across the country, with Alaska also declaring its outcome, Democrats edged into the lead and took control of Congress.

The blue wave also swept through traditional red strongholds, with Democrats making gains in states such as Texas, Kansas, South Carolina and Ohio. Although the election was officially about control of Congress, it was widely seen as a test of Trump’s standing with voters. His critics were quick to brand him a “failed lame duck president” after the disappointing results for Republicans, who had previously held the House of Representatives.

In the run-up to voting, Trump had urged Americans to “pretend I’m on the ballot” as he campaigned at dozens of rallies across the country ahead of the midterms. After the Republican setback, the US president vented online. Posting on Truth Social, he wrote: “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Meanwhile, Democrat US Senator Jon Ossoff, a possible 2028 presidential contender, secured re-election in Georgia, a state that had been a major Republican target.

The 39-year-old has become one of Trump’s most prominent critics, using his role to raise his national profile. Addressing supporters, Ossoff said: “In sweeping and decisive victories the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption, and incompetence of the failed lame duck president Donald J Trump. “And if, at times these last two years, amidst the ceaseless onslaught of brutality and indecency, you doubted whether our republic would survive, let tonight’s results give you courage that the first light of dawn is on the horizon.”