'Would have won in a landslide': Trump distances himself from midterm results as Republicans face major setbacks

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed he would have won the midterm elections by a landslide had his name been on the ballot, as Democrats appeared poised to take control of the House of Representatives and were closing in on Senate control.

"I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, distancing himself from the Republican setbacks.

The remarks came as several of Trump's handpicked candidates struggled in the midterm elections.

Democrats were leading in multiple battleground Senate contests and scoring victories in states traditionally considered Republican strongholds.

The results threaten to weaken Trump's political standing less than two years into his presidency and could complicate his legislative agenda for the remainder of his term.

Trump had repeatedly urged supporters to "pretend I'm on the ballot". He also made more than two dozen campaign appearances since the beginning of October, largely in states he comfortably won in the 2024 presidential election.

But Republican candidates appeared increasingly reluctant to associate themselves with the president in their campaign advertising.

An analysis by Axios found that Trump featured in 66% of House Republican primary advertisements but in just 3% of their general election advertisements. In Senate races, the share of Republican advertisements mentioning him fell from 77% to 22%.

His presence in Republican gubernatorial campaign advertisements also declined by 34 percentage points.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the Senate's 100 seats were being contested in the elections, which will determine control of Congress.

A Democratic takeover of either chamber would pose a major challenge to Trump.

Control of the House would give Democrats the authority to launch investigations into his administration and business dealings, while a Democratic-controlled Senate could block presidential appointments.

Democrats face a difficult electoral map in the Senate race, as they have to defend all their existing Senate seats and make gains in states that backed Trump by double-digit margins in 2024.

However, the party made breakthroughs in several of those contests.

The Associated Press called victories for Democrats James Talarico in Texas, Annie Andrews in South Carolina and Roy Cooper, flipping the respective seats to the Democratic Party.

Democrat Josh Turek was also leading in Iowa.

Trump, notorious for wrongly claiming a win in the 2020 presidential election, struck a conciliatory note on the prospect of Democrats taking control of Congress, saying he would accept the election results.

"I am absolutely willing to accept those results," Trump told The New York Times in an interview.

"We'll work with the Democrats, and we'll, you know, look forward to working with them. We'll probably work something out," he said.