Trump's Midterm Reversal: From Congratulations to Rigged Claims in Six Days

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, questioning whether the midterm election was honest and blaming voting machines and early-voting dumps, less than a week after Democrats won control of both the House and Senate.

"Does anybody really believe that this 'Election' was honest," Trump wrote, asking how the polls could be "so wrong" and claiming early voting "dumps" were "so large that it was impossible to win." He concluded: "It's all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!"

On election night, Nov. 3, he told CBS News: "My message is, congratulations to the Democrats, and I look forward to working with you for the good of our country." He repeated that sentiment in an interview that aired Sunday on 60 Minutes. On Election Day, as the scale of the Republican defeat became clear, he told The New York Times he was "absolutely willing" to accept the results and offered to work with Democrats.

Speaking to reporters later on Nov. 9, Trump was asked whether the midterms had been rigged.

Election officials nationwide have reported that voting this year was largely routine.

The timing matters because votes are still being counted. As of Nov. 9, the Mississippi Senate race between incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith and Scott Colom remained too close to call, with more than 2,800 mail-in ballots outstanding and a margin of just under 2,300 votes. Two Senate and two governors' races remained unresolved overall.

Trump's reversal injects doubt into an election he had already publicly accepted, while officials are still administering the count. Claims about machines and dumps can erode confidence in routine vote-counting and lay groundwork to contest outcomes.