Trump Has Even Warped How We View Victory
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The gist
Democrats retook the House and Senate in the midterms, flipping seven Senate seats.
The New Republic argues restoring what Trump destroyed is not much of a victory.
Background
The New Republic is a US political magazine; its piece runs after two years of Donald Trump's second administration, with Democrats newly holding congressional majorities but Trump still president. The article argues the midterm results are cause for celebration, but that merely restoring what Trump destroyed is not much of a victory, and that Trump "has made mediocrity aspirational." It compares the moment to the Tea Party seizing the Republican Party in 2009 and MAGA taking over in 2016.
How it unfolded
- Nov 3, 2026Democrats took back the House and Senate by a "blue tsunami," flipping seven Senate seats with two still in play, and elected a series of firsts including the first Native woman senator, Peggy Flanagan.
- Nov 3, 2026The New York Times reported large swaths of the country shifted left by about 16 points on average, and even in states where Democrats lost, voters still shifted sharply.
- Nov 4, 2026Congressman Jamie Raskin posted a Tom Paine quote on struggle and victory.
- Nov 5, 2026The New Republic published "Trump Has Even Warped How We View Victory," arguing that restoring what Trump destroyed is not much of a victory.
Key terms
- midterms
- US general elections held near the midpoint of a president's four-year term, when all House seats and about a third of Senate seats are contested.
- Tea Party
- A fiscally conservative American right-wing political movement within the Republican Party that began around 2009.
- MAGA
- Political slogan and movement associated with Donald Trump's campaigns and his political base.
Source: Wikipedia
Who’s saying what
- Analysts
- The New Republic argues the results are cause for celebration, but that if Democrats merely restore what Trump destroyed, it is not much of a victory, since competence should be the starting point, not the destination.
- Support
- Meditations in an Emergency calls it "a great blue whale of an election and something to sing about," crediting strong Democratic turnout and low turnout by demoralized conservatives, helped by Trump's handpicked candidates Paxton in Texas and Ramaswamy in Ohio.
- Party
- House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said "The American people don't want us to get even; they want us to get things done on their behalf."
- Caution
- Meditations in an Emergency disputes Jeffries, saying "get even" and "get things done" are not two different things, because "get even" trivializes the need for accountability, hearings, and criminal proceedings.
Still unverified
Two Senate seats are still in play, and results are still out on a close race that could bring Mississippi's first Black senator since Reconstruction; Mary Peltola may become a second Native woman senator.