Opinion: Opinion | Trump's Midterm Rout Has One More Victim: JD Vance

For the past month, Donald Trump told crowds across America to "pretend I'm on the ballot". On November 3, voters took him at his word. The Democrats have won control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

At the time of writing, they hold about 54 Senate seats to the Republicans' 44, with Alaska and Mississippi still counting. In the House, they have gained more than two dozen seats, and some Democratic strategists expect their share to cross 240. Early exit polls put Trump's approval at 38%, the lowest recorded for a President in a midterm election in those surveys, and about six in ten voters said he was a factor in their choice.

The morning after, Trump wrote that he "wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!" He blamed Texas Governor Greg Abbott for his own defeat, saying he "wouldn't have lost" had he not become a "RINO", that is, a Republican in name only. A Resounding Defeat