Axios: The Trump obliteration

Posted on November 4, 2026 by michelleclarke2015
The Trump obliteration
 
Illustration of a pack of donkeys at a race
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
 
Make no mistake: Democrats won by epic, sometimes historic margins across red and blue states, up and down ballots, obliterating almost everything President Trump, and a Republican Party remade wholly in his image, built over the past decade in American politics, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a “Behind the Curtain” column.

Why it matters: Trump and Republicans are left with a mostly white, mostly old House and Senate minority, confronting a younger, more diverse ascendant Democratic Party with power and margins it hasn’t held in 18 years, since the dawn of the Obama era

📊 The results speak louder than any words we can write: Democrats won Senate races in Texas, Kansas, South Carolina, Ohio, and perhaps Mississippi en route to what could be a 55-seat majority. Democrats won swing districts all across red America, with national average margins of victory of roughly 13 points, according to a New York Times estimate. Dems appear headed for a 250+-seat majority, an 18-year high.Texas is now a Democratic state, top to bottom — unthinkable mere months ago. James Talarico crushed Ken Paxton (55% to 43%) like it was Connecticut. State Representative Gina Hinojosa will become the first Democratic governor of Texas in 32 years.Pastor Adam Hamilton is the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Kansas in 94 years.North Carolina looks like a true-blue state after Democrats flipped the Senate seat and likely ousted Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) — meaning he led the GOP drive to keep the House.North Carolina’s congressional delegation could swing from 10R-4D to 5R-9D. Georgia was even worse for Republicans, where they lost all power at the state and U.S. Senate levels.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) predicted on X that the losses were so widespread, so deep, so severe that Republicans might not “have a shot at Senate control until 2032.

“💡 How to think about last night more broadly: This is a 50-50 nation with fast, whiplash shifts in power at the federal level due to persistent discontent with the party in power. So, on one hand, this isn’t terribly surprising. On the other, Republican losses were so deep, so wide, so everywhere that it would be foolish to see this as anything but a massive repudiation of Trump, his agenda, his style, his rhetoric and his presidency.

If anything, what’s left of the Republican Party is more pro-Trump and less likely to challenge him. His critics, even the timid ones, were ousted long before the general election. So Republicans are left with two more years of riding a very unpopular leader managing a very unpopular war. A trapped, embarrassed Trump is even more unpredictable. Democrats have the numbers to investigate Trump, his family and supporters, and the power to set the agenda in the House and Senate.The bottom line: Voters nationally said government corruption was a “crucial issue” in their vote for Congress. Democrats will spend months trying to rehab a party that, despite its victory, remains deeply unpopular as a brand. Expect a vigorous fight between Mamdani-like socialists and Schumer-like center-leftists.
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2. 🌊 Blue tsunami breaks MAGA
 
Illustration of a giant blue wave with a repeated pattern of
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images
 
The 2026 midterms will go down as one of the most sweeping repudiations of a sitting president in modern American history, on a scale reminiscent of the post-Watergate reckoning of 1974, Axios’ Zachary Basu writes.

Democrats seized control of both chambers of Congress, on course to hold at least 54 Senate seats and potentially more than 255 in the House.

The wave swept deep into Republican territory, from Texas and Georgia to both Carolinas, flipping hundreds of legislative seats and delivering Democratic trifectas in the unlikeliest of states.

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s bitterly contested Senate race and will be the nation’s first Muslim senator.Cover: The New York PostTakeaways:

1. Texas turns blue: Democrats finally conquered the nation’s most coveted Republican stronghold — in a landslide so sweeping that even three-term Gov. Greg Abbott was driven from office.

Gina Hinojosa became the state’s first Latina governor, while James Talarico defeated Trump-backed Ken Paxton to become the first Texas Democrat elected to the Senate since 1988.

The Democratic onslaught extended across statewide offices and into the legislature after 32 years of GOP dominance.

2. Democrats storm Senate: What once looked like an impossibly difficult map for Democrats gave way to a historic rout, as Republicans watched their 53-seat majority crumble in states Trump carried by double digits.

Democrats broke a 94-year losing streak in Kansas, ousted Republicans in Ohio, Iowa and North Carolina, and captured South Carolina for the first time since 1998.

In Maine, Democrats finally toppled five-term Sen. Susan Collins after many failed attempts.

3. MAGA coalition collapses: The multiracial, working-class coalition that powered Trump’s 2024 comeback fractured spectacularly.

AP’s nationwide voter survey found roughly 70% of voters under 30 and 60% of Hispanic voters backed Democratic House candidates, amid widespread anger over the economy and the Iran war.

4. GOP House firewall crumbles: Democrats are on course for their largest House majority since 2009.Casualties spanned the entire GOP conference, from MAGA firebrands to battle-tested moderates. Even seats redrawn to shield Republicans from a blue wave fell to Democrats, turning Trump’s redistricting offensive into a spectacular miscalculation.Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) arrives to deliver a victory speech at an election night party in Atlanta. Photo: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images5.

2028’s winners and losers: Yesterday’s landslide elevated a new generation of Democratic contenders and cast a shadow over Vice President Vance’s presidential ambitions.

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, whose race was called 15 minutes after polls closed, immediately vaulted into the top tier of Democratic prospects. Keisha Lance Bottoms’ historic victory for governor removed a key obstacle for both Ossoff and Sen. Raphael Warnock: She could appoint a Democrat to fill their seat if either became president.

Vance, Trump’s presumed political heir, now faces the fallout from a deeply unpopular Iran war and the collapse of a once-in-a-generation coalition he hoped would carry him to the White House.Share this story.
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3. 🥊 Susie Wiles: Foot on gas
 
Tweet screenshot by Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) with an American flag avatar and verification, reading:
Via Truth Social
 
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles made these remarks to senior staff gathered in her office last night, a person in the room tells me:“We’re going to take a page out of President Trump’s playbook and keep fighting for the American people. We will not stand by while radical Democrats try to undo the progress we’ve made by reopening our borders, making our communities less safe, and raising taxes on hardworking families. Anyone who thinks President Trump or this team is going to take our foot off the gas over the next two years is sorely mistaken. We know exactly what’s at stake, we know what we’re fighting for, and we have no intention of backing down. There is work left to do, and we intend to finish the job.”Via Truth Social

📱President Trump told The New York Times in a phone interview shortly before 10:30 p.m. ET that he’s “absolutely willing” to accept the results, and is prepared to work with Democrats:

“We’ll, you know, look forward to working with them … We’ll probably work something out.

“He called his decision to go to war with Iran a “very wise decision.

“On Republican Darline Graham’s stunning loss of her Senate race in South Carolina, Trump said: “I’m just looking at these results as I’m talking … I see that Darline lost. Wow, that’s amazing.

“Referring to Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died in July, Trump added: “How do you think Lindsey would have done if he ran?”
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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