Comment As Republicans grapple with their poor performance in Tuesday’s midterm elections, one man has begun to receive an unusual amount of criticism from his fellow countrymen: Donald Trump. The former president, who boosted some inexperienced Senate candidates in their primaries that underperformed Tuesday, said before the midterms that he wanted “all the credit” if Republicans won. “If they lose, I shouldn’t be blamed at all,” he told NewsNation. But now that Republicans face the prospect of being a minority in the Senate and still waiting to see if they will officially achieve an uncomfortably narrow majority in the House, some unexpected voices within the party are beginning to question Trump’s influence. Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsom Earle-Shears, a Republican who has strongly supported Trump, said the poor performance of some of his candidates is a sign that he should step aside. “It turns out that those who didn’t approve on the same ticket did better than those who did,” he said. “That gives you an idea that voters want to move forward. And a true leader knows when he has become responsible for the mission.” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) — who cruised to victory as Trump-endorsed Senate candidate Don Bolduc lost by a wide margin — told SiriusXM Friday that Trump could “derail” the opportunity for Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker. win if he announces his candidacy before the state’s December runoff. “What the former president doesn’t understand is if he announces … he’s not going to keep anyone else out of the race,” Sununu said, calling it an “inconvenient” thing to do. “I don’t think they’re off to a very good start.” The volume of open criticism shows a rare moment of weakness for Trump among Republicans as he prepares to announce his 2024 presidential bid next week. Exit polls showed his favorability even lower than President Biden’s on Tuesday, and polls of Republican voters show him losing ground to Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis (R) in hypothetical presidential showdowns. But Republicans who have long been critical of Trump are wary of getting their hopes up that the party’s new criticisms mean they are ready to go ahead this time. An outpouring of criticism of Trump after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tapes in 2016 and after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill last year was quickly followed by a backlash as Republican base voters rallied around Trump. “We’ve heard that song before,” said Doug Hay, a former Republican National Committee spokesman who has long been a critic of Trump. “The question is: Will this time be different?” This time, the criticism comes as Trump tries to restart his political career and faces potential challenges from Republicans who don’t have his baggage. The fact that many candidates who emulated his style, such as defeated Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, fared worse on Tuesday also underscored Trump’s own defeat in 2020. His expectation that GOP candidates endorsed the false his claim that the 2020 election was stolen kept them mired in a regressive and conspiratorial message that turned off many voters. Arguably, some of the criticism of Trump has also stemmed from the few success stories of Republicans in the midterm elections so far. Mike Lawler, a Republican state lawmaker who won a seat from Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (DN.Y.), the House Democratic campaign chairman, said the party needs to move on from Trump . “I think moving in a different direction as we go forward is a good thing, not a bad thing,” he said in an interview with CNN this week. “But ultimately, look, the voters will decide what they want to do and the former president will decide what he wants to do.” Trump recently attacked two potential opponents. He mocked Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngin (R) in a statement Friday, saying his name sounded “Chinese.” He also issued a lengthy statement going after DeSantis, whom he has warned not to be against him. The debate is taking place on Fox News, which has been a bastion of support for Trump during his years in office. Their commentators talked about DeSantis’ big victory in Florida and strongly questioned the former president’s influence. “I love Trump. I want him to run. I think he’s a great candidate. I loved him as president,” Fox News anchor Jesse Watters said Wednesday night. But he added: “It brings out such insanity on the left. They will walk over hot coals to vote against Donald Trump.” Kayleigh McEnany, a former White House press secretary under Trump, warned that he should not announce his presidential bid before the Georgia Senate runoff and praised DeSantis as someone who could boost Walker in the state. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who easily won re-election on Tuesday, tweeted: “Let’s see the next election. Stop talking about 2020.” Former Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) declined to criticize Trump’s influence in the midterm elections, but described DeSantis as “the future of the party.” “We have great candidates who could also run for president, like Tim Scott, Marco Rubio,” she said, referring to Republican senators from South Carolina and Florida, then citing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Secretary Foreign Secretary Mike Pompeo. “I hope Marco runs again. And Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo. I mean, we just have a lot of good candidates in the Republican Party, and we don’t have to look in the mirror.” Trump continued to stick to the faith as he prepares to announce his 2024 presidential bid next week. His adviser Jason Miller said in a podcast Friday that Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), who is running for speaker of the House of Representatives, is “much more vocal that he supports President Trump.” Rep. Elise Stefanik (RN.Y.), who is running for leadership, endorsed Trump in a statement Friday. “Republican voters determine who the leader of the Republican Party is, and it’s very clear that President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party,” he said. But privately, several House Republicans have complained about Trump’s influence in some of their races, which they say has contributed to a small and unmanageable House majority if enough races are claimed for GOP control. Trump has supported fringe House candidates, including Beau Hines in North Carolina and Caroline Levitt in New Hampshire, whose fixation with false claims about the 2020 election and other positions likely turned off general election voters. The complaints are loudest in Pennsylvania and Michigan, states that supported Trump in 2016 but where Republicans performed dismally on Tuesday. Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), who is retiring and whose seat Republicans lost to Democrat John Fetterman, said Trump’s influence in the state was “toxic.” “I’m increasingly of the view that his influence will wane,” Toomey said. “I suspect last night’s election will accelerate that process because his influence has not been so helpful to the party and its prospects.” Republicans are asking why he insisted on holding a rally in Pennsylvania and teasing his own 2024 campaign announcement by focusing on him in the final days of the race. He also picked TV personality Mehmet Oz in the Senate primary and endorsed election denier Doug Mastriano in the governor’s race later in the primary. They were both lost. “He interfered in the primary here when there was no reason to,” Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.), one of the early Trump supporters who unsuccessfully ran for governor, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. In Michigan, the GOP blamed the “Trump effect,” abortion and an unpopular gubernatorial candidate for their poor showing in the state in a memo. The party was “operating within the political reality that President Trump was popular with our base and motivating for his supporters, but provided challenges on a statewide ballot, especially with independents and women in midterm elections,” wrote Paul Cordes, the state. party chief of staff. Paul D. Ryan, a former Republican House speaker and occasional critic of Trump, said the former president is a political headache for Republicans. “We lost the House, the Senate and the White House in two years when Trump was on the ballot or in office,” Ryan told a Wisconsin news outlet. “I think we have a bit of a hangover from Trump. I think it’s heavy in our office, in our games.” Even some on the alt-right pulled the knives out on him this week. “Losing always sucks, but at least nobody has to pick on Trump anymore. He will feel the atmosphere change very quickly,” wrote Mike Cernovich, a far-right commentator who helped spread the baseless Pizzagate conspiracy theory against Democrats. Trump’s allies are trying to shift the blame to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for the poor showing, while Trump has released a series of statements falsely alleging fraud in the midterm elections and that he will easily win other primaries Republican elections. He pointed out that many Republicans opposed him in 2016, when he knocked out his opponents one by one before winning the nomination. “We are in exactly the same position now. They will continue to follow us, MAGA, but we will win in the end,” he wrote. Theodoric Meyer contributed to this report.
