Don’t Believe the Papers That I Got Mad — Trump’s Post-Midterm Freakout Is in Full Swing

Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday morning to declare that he is absolutely not mad about the midterms. Do not believe the fake news media, he is a very stable genius who is not — we repeat, NOT— mad.

“For those many people that are being fed the fake narrative from the corrupt media that I am Angry about the Midterms, don’t believe it,” Trump wrote. “I am not at all angry, did a great job (I wasn’t the one running!), and am very busy looking into the future. Remember, I am a “Stable Genius.”

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Following a tweet from New York Times reporter Maggie Habberman claiming that Trump was privately fuming at advisors – including former First Lady Melania Trump – for encouraging him to back Dr. Mehmet Oz in his failed bid for the Senate, Trump responded with characteristic, extremely public rage.

They “had NOTHING to do with it,” wrote Trump. In a follow-up post, he apologized to his wife and favorite Fox News host, Sean Hannity, for “all of the Fake News and fictional stories… being dumped on you by reporters and “News” Organizations who know these stories are not true.”

The former president has been taking shots from all sides, including his own party, following a disappointing show by Republicans in Tuesday’s midterm elections. The party, which had predicted an “elevator doors in the Shining” red tide across the country, saw Democrats deliver their best performance as incumbents in a midterm in decades. Party insiders responded with full-blown panic, as one source previously told Rolling Stone a feeling that the GOP had “shit the bed” prevailed as results came in.

Wednesday morning quarterbacks scrambled to find a plausible explanation for why things had gone so wrong, and many pointed the finger at Trump. The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board published an op-ed Thursday morning under a headline calling Trump the “Republican Party’s Biggest Loser.” Various other notable conservative publications put out analyses calling for the end of unquestioned deference to Trump within the party.

Some conservative commentators are now calling for the GOP’s crown to pass to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who, along with Republicans throughout the state, dominated. On Fox, Trump’s former Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany called for her old boss to delay the planned November 15th announcement of his 2024 presidential campaign. She also advised him to stay far away from Georgia, where the Senate contest between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and Trump-endorsed former NFL star Herschel Walker is headed to a runoff.

DeSantis’s performance and growing popularity has not gone unnoticed by Trump. He’s been not so quietly spreading rumors and attempting to dig up dirt on his potential rival and publicly snubbing him at rallies and events.

“If they win, I should get all the credit,” Trump said in an election day interview with NewsNation. “And if they lose, I should not be blamed at all. But it will probably be just the opposite.” It seems his prediction was, at least in part, correct.

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