The 2026 US midterm elections, widely viewed as a referendum on Donald Trump's second-term presidency, delivered a sweeping victory for the Democrats, who wrested control of both the House and the Senate.
Amid this major political setback, Trump appeared on Fox News at around midnight on November 3 and broke into a tirade about being slighted by the news channel.
Highlights
- President Donald Trump accused Fox News of being “disloyal” after the Democrats secured a significant victory in the midterm elections.
- Host Bret Baier fired back with a response that netizens approved of after the POTUS called the channel’s polls “terrible.”
- Analysts blamed Trump for a majority of the Republican losses, including costing a seat that was to be a “slam-dunk.”
Host Bret Baier fired back with a savage reply, and their interaction quickly went viral online.
“This is what ‘cope’ and ‘crying harder’ looks like,” one user commented.
Fox News host fact-checked Donald Trump live on air about midterm polls
With Democrat James Talarico taking over the Lone Star State, Baier asked Trump if he had any regrets about not backing longtime Texas Senator John Cornyn, who lost the primary race to GOP candidate Ken Paxton.
The president said he “wasn’t a fan” of Cornyn and called him a “disloyal guy” for comments made against him before the 2024 presidential elections, when the latter said that Trump’s time had “passed him by.”
“He wasn’t a fan of mine when it wasn’t fashionable. We can say that about a lot of people. We can say that about you,” Trump said to Baier, who chuckled in response. “When it was fashionable, he kissed my a*s.”
The president then pivoted to polling results, saying a new CNN poll has put his approval rating at 53% ahead of the midterms, compared to Ronald Reagan’s 18% and Abraham Lincoln’s 8%.
“Then I read on Fox that I am not popular,” Trump added. “The Fox polls are terrible. You ought to get yourself a good pollster because your polls are the worst.”
“But tonight, actually, the results are pretty close to what the Fox polls showed,” Baier responded.
“Well, I don’t know about that. I can just tell you about speaking for myself,” Trump answered. “And the results of Fox with me were wrong for 12 years. They’ve gotten me wrong for 12 years.”
According to CNN’s own poll tracking, their approval rating for Trump in October 2026 was 32%, whereas Fox News’ was 36%.
Netizens slammed Trump for having a “public meltdown” over midterm results
Earlier on Truth Social, Trump called Fox News “Deranged Dumocrats” and accused them of falsifying his approval ratings.
“It’s them, not me—My numbers are better than they have ever been,” he wrote. “They are way down, not because of me, but because they are AGAINST me! This happened once before, and Fox almost collapsed. It’s happening again.”
Fox News currently has a reputation of being a “MAGA-friendly” news channel, and has been called out in the past for “fake news” coverage.
A section of netizens ripped into Trump for “denying” his administration's role in the midterm results and having a “meltdown” live on air.
“What stage of grief is this?” one person asked. Another said, “This guy doesn't know his political career is over.”
“He lies constantly and is so sheltered by privilege that he can ignore his own voters, lose dismally, and still tell himself it’s their fault,” a third wrote.
A fourth commented, “Only a psychopath who spent his time talking about men’s a**es and ballrooms would be surprised by these results. Trump is completely detached from reality.”
Ahead of the midterm elections, Fox News predicted Democratic control in both chambers of Congress. A November 1 poll favored them in 48 seats against Republicans’ 45, with seven battleground states likely to decide the majority.
Analysts blamed Donald Trump’s policies for the landslide Democratic victory in the midterms
On issues defining this election, more than 80% of people in Fox News polls expressed dissatisfaction with corruption, inflation, gas prices, and healthcare. 75% of voters were unhappy with the Iran conflict, while 68% were concerned with AI usage and data centers.
While a few races are still officially uncalled at the time of this writing, Democrats have flipped seven Senate seats and five in the gubernatorial races, and are projected to win at least 258 House seats, well beyond the 218 needed to secure a majority.
Several GOP candidates heavily backed by Trump lost, including Michael Whatley in North Carolina, Darline Graham in South Carolina, Mike Rogers in Michigan, and the controversy-plagued Ken Paxton in Texas.
“This is a Trump Quake,” said Doug Heye, a veteran Republican strategist, about the losses coming amid an all-time-low popularity for the president in multiple polling data. “Trump spent the year telling voters what was important to him, not to them.”
According to independent analyst Thomas Kahn, a professor at American University, Trump cost the Republican Party seats that otherwise would have been surefire victories.
Texas “would have been a slam dunk” had he backed Sen. Cornyn, and the president “essentially gave that seat away” in North Carolina because of his public rift with Thom Tillis over Medicaid cuts, Kahn said.
"Seems like he's begging not to be impeached," one user joked
