Trump congratulates Democrats, then says losing Congress isn’t ‘a hit on me’

Donald Trump has found the one election that isn’t about him: the one his party just lost.

AP had called the House and the Senate for Democrats when he phoned in to Fox News’ election-night coverage with Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. Asked for his message to the American people, he started out almost gracious: “Congratulations to the Democrats. They did a good job. They’ve been looking for this one for 11 years and they finally got it.” Then, without stopping: “But I don’t view it as a hit on me.”

On election eve he’d told Hannity viewers to treat the midterms as though he were on the ballot. At 10:37pm ET on Election Day, as the losses came in, he posted that he “wasn’t on the Ballot.” So the ballot had him on it until it didn’t.

He chose this moment to grade himself instead: “We’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency.” He didn’t say who did the ranking. AP’s race calls tell a different story: his endorsees lost in Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas and both Carolinas.