President Donald Trump on Wednesday brushed aside Republican losses in Tuesday night’s elections, telling GOP senators that the results were “not expected to be a victory” and emphasizing the need for the party to stay focused on reopening the government and advancing a conservative agenda.
The president spoke hours after Democrat victories in the Virginia and New Jersey governor races and after democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral race.
“Last night, it was a very Democrat area,” Trump said at a White House breakfast with GOP senators and Vice President JD Vance.
“I don’t think it was good for Republicans. I’m not sure it was good for anybody. But we had an interesting evening, and we learned a lot.”
Trump used the meeting to rally support for ending the Senate filibuster, calling it the only way to break Democrat obstruction.
“It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that’s terminate the filibuster,” he said. “If you don’t, you’ll be in bad shape. We won’t pass any legislation.”
The president said Democrats in the Senate were acting like “kamikaze pilots” by prolonging what he called a “Democrat-created shutdown,” warning that millions of Americans were being hurt as the government remained closed.
He said the standoff underscored the urgency for Republican lawmakers to stand united.
“This is now officially the longest shutdown in American history,” Trump said. “The radical left in the Senate has shown zero interest in reopening the government. They’ll take down the country if they have to.”
Trump also railed against what he described as runaway welfare spending and an influx of illegal migrants under former President Joe Biden, claiming that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program had exploded in cost.
“When I was president [first term], we had $7 billion worth,” Trump said. “Now it’s many times that — $47 billion. They gave it to anybody that wanted it. No country can sustain that.”
Turning to the economy, Trump touted his record of cutting taxes, stopping foreign wars, and reviving U.S. manufacturing.
“We have car companies coming in,” he said, citing a $10 billion Toyota investment in new U.S. plants. “There’s a construction boom right now, but it’s going to be an economic boom once the government reopens.”
He closed by urging Republicans to pursue election integrity reforms — including voter ID and limits on mail-in voting — and to act decisively before Democrats “pack the courts” and “make D.C. and Puerto Rico states.”
“If we do this right, we’ll have the most successful Congress in history,” Trump said. “If not, we’ll just sit around arguing with radical left subversives all day long.”
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