Donald Trump has reportedly hit the panic button over this week’s election results that delivered a massive rejection of his administration.
Tuesday’s elections were the first of the president’s second term and saw a massive anti-Trump swing that hit the GOP hard. Democratic Abigail Spanberger scored an easy win for governor of Virginia, while Mikie Sherrill beat her Trump-endorsed Republican rival Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey.
In New York, 34-year-old Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani directly called out “despot” Trump after beating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whom the president had endorsed.
“We can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves,” Mamdani said. “After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”
While Trump blamed the Republican losses on the government shutdown and even the fact that his name was not on the ballot, a new report claims the president is privately worried about the election backlash.
Sources close to the president told Axios that Trump “devours polling” and had been following the numbers and trends. He was also concerned about the cost of food and the economic impact on everyday Americans.
“Sometimes, it’s good to touch the hot stove,” an adviser told Axios, noting that the elections gave the GOP a brutal reality check about how they could fare in next year’s midterm elections.
Another adviser said Trump is selectively promoting economic indicators after the week’s electoral losses. “The president doesn’t want to sound like Biden, telling people everything is great,” one adviser said. “He’s not doing the Trump version of Bidenomics. So he’s picking his shots.”
In a breakfast meeting on Wednesday, Trump had blamed the Republican losses on the reaction to the ongoing government shutdown, despite the GOP consistently blaming it on the Democrats, Axios reported.
The cost of living was a key staple of the Democrats’ election campaigns, which focused on affordability, with Mamdani pointing out that Trump was part of the elite “billionaire class” who couldn’t relate to issues such as housing, groceries, and public transportation.
Since Tuesday, Trump has made two Truth Social posts claiming the price of a Thanksgiving dinner at retailer Walmart is 25 percent less than it was last year.
His most recent post finished “My cost [sic] are lower than the Democrats on everything, especially oil and gas! So the Democrats “affordability” issue is DEAD! STOP LYING!!!"
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Trump was asked about Walmart’s cheaper Thanksgiving deal. The president said “the very powerful statement” of their 25 percent saving was for him “better than a poll.”
“They’ve got everything included from the trimmings and from the turkey and from everything, a lot of different items,” Trump said. “It’s 25 percent less this year than it was last year when [Biden] was so-called in charge.”
However while Trump claimed “everything” was included, Walmart’s cheaper 2025 Thanksgiving meal bundle actually contains only 23 items, down from 29 last year.
Missing from the bundle this year are chicken broth, poultry seasoning, onions, celery, sweet potatoes, muffin mix, marshmallows, whipped topping and pecan pie. The new bundle also swaps standard dinner rolls for last year’s sweet Hawaiian rolls and only includes one can of cream of mushroom soup–it had two in 2024.
“I think every president, no matter who they are, are basically in a cone of information by the people that they that they have working for them and are around them,” Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said on CNN Thursday night when asked about the downsized deal by Kaitlan Collins. She praised the chain for offering lower prices because “Americans definitely need that and I’m sure the president was proud to talk about it.”
The White House issued a press release on Thursday titled “Americans Are Paying Less This Thanksgiving,” citing a new Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute report that claimed the “classic holiday feast [was] about 3 percent cheaper than last year.”
However Wells Fargo said those savings depended on the “shopper’s strategy” of “smart shopping and brand competition” to keep prices down, suggesting the use of frozen vegetables, pre-prepared mashed potatoes and cheaper generic store brand items over major brands.
“It’s proof that under President Trump’s leadership, America is winning the war on high prices,” the press released stated. “Even as Democrats grind the country to a halt with their deranged, reckless government shutdown.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Walmart for comment.
Figures from Tuesday’s elections in New Jersey and Virginia demonstrated that the anti-Trump sentiment was growing.
According to figures from CNN data specialist Harry Enten, 93 percent of Trump disapprovers voted for the Democratic candidate in New Jersey and 92 percent in Virginia, both up from 2017.
“If there is any idea that Republicans are going to be able to outrun Donald Trump’s low approval ratings, this says not,” Enten said on Wednesday.
Enten also cited new polls that demonstrated how low Trump’s approval ratings have dropped, causing grief for the Republicans.
“These are polls that are out this week,” Enten said. “Look, CNN, he was 26 points underwater, CBS, 18 points underwater, ABC, 18 points underwater. The NBC/Hart Public Opinion Strategies poll, he was 12 points underwater.”
“My goodness gracious, he’s down there with the Titanic, and this is what is turning in for the Republican Party.”
“That result on Tuesday night was a titanic proportion, just absolutely awful result...Democrats won their first statewide races that weren’t federal in Georgia for the first time in a generation. What we are talking about at this particular point is, Donald Trump is absolutely a drag,” he said.
