Donald Trump Disputes the Election Results… Again: President Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of the midterm elections Monday in an all-too-familiar Truth Social post.
Trump, who last week accepted the election results that saw the Republican Party lose control of both chambers of Congress, suggested early-voting totals and election machines had made it impossible for the GOP to win.
Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, Arizona. Credit: Gage Skidmore.
President Donald Trump participates in the swearing-in ceremony for Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz, Friday, April 18, 2025, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)
The president has a history of disputing election results following the 2020 presidential election that he, without evidence, maintains was “stolen” by the Democratic Party.
A Shift in Tone
After last week’s midterms, Trump accepted results that saw his party’s candidates defeated across the country. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump did not challenge the Republican Party’s defeat, telling the publication: “I think we’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll get along very well with them. If we don’t, we’ll be very tough on them, they’ll be very tough on us.”
However, on Monday, Trump questioned the election’s validity.
“Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest?” he wrote on Truth Social. “How could the Polls be so wrong??? Some early voting ‘dumps’ were so large that it was impossible to win, no matter how many people went to vote.”
He added: “It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!”
Over the weekend, Trump shared multiple posts questioning last Tuesday’s results. The campaign also saw repeated threats to scrutinize the results, with both Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin pledging to investigate the election.
“After this election, we’ll be gathering all the data, we’ll be gathering the voting logs, and we’ll be going through those and making sure that no illegals voted,” the latter told Fox News on election day.
The Polls and the Results
Despite Trump’s unevidenced skepticism about the differences between polls and results, a preliminary Pew Research Center review published Friday, November 6, said preelection surveys “captured the direction of this year’s election while generally understating the size of Democrats’ advantage.”
“In the end, polls found more than enough opportunities for Democratic pickups in the Senate to win a majority in the chamber, and they indicated a likely Democratic takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives,” the review continued. “But the polling understated the size of the eventual Democratic victory in many of the major statewide races (Georgia and Texas, in particular), as well as in the overall House vote.”
Preelection polls, according to the American Association for Public Opinion Research, are not predictions of election outcomes, but rather a survey of voter opinion at the time.
Counting Continues Across the Country
Even when a result may be clear, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission distinguishes preliminary results from final certified totals. As such, even when media outlets show 100% reporting, election night figures remain unofficial until the results are certified.
During the canvass, officials reconcile records and confirm that valid ballots have been included. Post-election audits provide another check on whether equipment counted votes correctly.
This process usually causes final tallies to change after election night, rather than misconduct.
Criticism From Both Sides
The president’s claims attracted critics from across the political divide. In a social media post, Democratic Party Senate leader Chuck Schumer said: “Donald Trump’s pathetic return to election denialism was inevitable. He can whine all he wants, but nothing will stop this inescapable truth: For the last two years of his presidency, Trump will face the largest Democratic congressional majorities in decades, all because he has been an unprecedented failure.”
Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly offered a more direct assessment. Sharing Trump’s Truth Social post on X, Kelly simply wrote: “Just stop.”
Trump famously disputed the 2020 presidential election results, with many experts say led to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. This trend has long been associated with the president, who even objected to the results of the Emmys before his political career.
In 2012, Trump falsely claimed that President Barack Obama had lost the popular vote. Four years later, he said that Sen. Ted Cruz “stole” an Iowa caucus victory from him, before later predicting that the 2016 presidential election would be “rigged” in favor of Democrat Hillary Clinton.
About the Author: Shay Bottomley
Shay Bottomley is a British journalist. He has written for the Western Standard, Business Insider, Maidenhead Advertiser, Slough Express, Windsor Express, Berkshire Live and Southend Echo.
