President Trump said Monday that Republicans never had a fair shot in the midterm elections because of large batches of early votes and the widespread use of voting machines.
It was a return to the type of grievances about voting and ballots he has often raised when unhappy with election results.
“Does anybody really believe that this ’Election’ was honest?” Mr. Trump said on social media. “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.”
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He followed up with another familiar complaint: “It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!”
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, who is vying to become majority leader after Democrats flipped the Senate, said Mr. Trump’s “pathetic return to election denialism was inevitable.”
“He can whine all he wants, but nothing will stop this inescapable truth: For the last two years of his presidency, Trump will face the largest Democratic congressional majorities in decades, all because he has been an unprecedented failure,” the New York Democrat said.
Pollsters missed the mark in some marquee races. But in many cases, the error ran in Democrats’ favor, with Democratic candidates outperforming pre-election surveys.
A Pew Research Center analysis found polling averages understated the Democratic margin by at least 2 points in 23 of 27 Senate and governor’s races with available data. The average miss was roughly four points, with some of the largest gaps showing up in Georgia and Texas.
Pew said an exception came in Pennsylvania, where Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, a likely 2028 presidential contender, won by about 22 points — a few points less than polling predicted.
Mr. Trump has often criticised voting machines.
Following his 2020 defeat, Mr. Trump and his allies blamed voting technology company Dominion Voting Systems for his loss, triggering allegations that the election had been rigged. Fox News later agreed to pay $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion over the network’s airing of false claims about the company.
Mr. Trump struck a similar tone during the 2022 midterms. On Election Day that year, Mr. Trump warned on social media that “They are trying to steal the election with bad Machines and DELAY. Don’t let it happen!”
Last year, Mr. Trump embarked on an effort to eliminate both mail-in voting and what he called “highly inaccurate” and “seriously controversial” voting machines.
“Elections can never be honest with mail-in ballots/voting,” he said on social media in August 2025. “I, and the Republican Party, will fight like hell to bring honesty and integrity back to our elections.”
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