The blame game has shifted into overdrive.
Republicans have begun pointing fingers at who is most responsible for Tuesday's extraordinary electoral drubbing.
Some are fingering the president and others are inching very close.
'Tonight was a total referendum on Trump,' declared former GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump ally who had a public split with the president last year before resigning early in 2026.
'Trump covered up the Epstein files protecting rapists and pedophiles, started a foreign war no one wanted and killed a school full of kids, put his rich elite donors before the struggling Americans who put him in office, made life unaffordable with his tariffs, and caused gas and diesel prices to skyrocket while he played the market and sold crypto,' she said on X.
'And Republicans stood behind him silently clapping like trained baby seals,' she added.
Her barrage was one of several aimed at conservatives in the wake of Democrats taking control of both chambers of Congress by sizable margins that some expect could take the better part of a decade to overcome.
Trump laid the blame for the election losses on his unpopular war with Iran, a notion Vice President JD Vance leaned into with a lengthy post on Wednesday.
'Tonight was a total referendum on Trump,' declared former GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump ally who had a public split with the president last year before resigning early in 2026
Trump laid the blame for the election losses on his unpopular war with Iran, a notion Vice President JD Vance agreed with in a lengthy post
Democrats are projected to have at least 54 seats in the Senate and 237 seats in the House of Representatives, compared to Republicans' 44 seats in the Senate and 145 seats in the House
Vance said the administration needed to better heed voters' concerns on the war, the cost of living and the US relationship with Israel.
Trump largely agreed with the assessment.
But the blunt assessment elicited scorn from some wings of the GOP.
'The problem was not the Iran War. It was the cease fire. If you start a war, you need to win it and finish it – otherwise don't start it,' President George W Bush's former press secretary Ari Fleischer responded to Vance's analysis.
The criticism did not just emanate from the president's critics; however, current lawmakers and party loyalists piled on.
Republican Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin blamed Trump's behavior as a major factor in what has been dubbed a 'Blue Tsunami.'
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'I think what it came down to is, you know, President Trump – who I think has a very good Cabinet, but he sometimes talks inappropriately, not very presidential,' the lawmaker said. 'I talk to a lot of people and I'll tell you, it turns people off.'
'You know, I talk to very knowledgeable people who just gush at all the wonderful things they feel that he's done, but then they just seethe when they talk about his personality,' Grothman said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence's onetime chief of staff Marc Short said the party needs 'a refresh right now' because 'we've lost our way.'
Several GOP strategists sounded the alarm to the Daily Mail, stressing how the president broke his 2024 campaign promise of not embarking on foreign wars, fracturing his support among independents that he wooed just two years prior.
'All the reasons we lost are the opposite of what the "MAGA movement" wants,' a source close to the White House confided.
Democrats are projected to have at least 54 seats in the Senate and 237 seats in the House of Representatives, compared to Republicans' 44 seats in the Senate and 145 seats in the House.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, described the fallout as an extinction-level event at a press conference on Wednesday morning.
While the president has called advisers inquiring about Pentagon boss Pete Hegseth's performance, Trump said Wednesday he is fully behind the secretary of defense.
Still, some sources close to the administration expect there to be staffing changes to account for the tsunami that has drowned Trump's chances of passing any legislation for his remaining two years.
Two Republican strategists told the Daily Mail the party faces a period of soul-searching over whether MAGA candidates are the way forward, with Trump term-limited and Vance the presumed heir apparent without the president's endorsement.
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