Trump tries to defend his midterm losses with lies over approval ratings and by turning on Republican candidates

Detailed summary

President Donald Trump grilled by Stephen A Smith over election wipeout but refuses to take any blame himself

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.

President Donald Trump has attempted to distance himself from the Republican Party’s disastrous performance in last week’s midterms elections, insisting his approval rating remains high and throwing the GOP candidates he endorsed under the bus.

The president was interviewed by Stephen A. Smith for his Straight Shooter with Stephen A podcast Thursday about his side losing control of the House of Representatives and Senate and suffering crushing defeats in typically Republican states such as Michigan, Kansas, Texas and Mississippi.

Sitting together in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, Smith got straight to the point: “What happened, Mr. President?”

Trump gave a meandering answer, pointing out that he had not been on the ballot himself, complaining about the two Dan Sullivans running in the Alaska Senate race (which has still not been called) and finally spoke on the Iran war.

“Maybe the war was not unpopular as a war but unpopular because of the fact that the gasoline prices were higher, oil prices, and I actually thought that was something that people would be able to handle pretty well,” he said.

The president insisted the electorate needed to understand that paying more for gas in the short-term was worth it to ensure Iran never obtained a nuclear weapon, blaming his own candidates for failing to sell the message.

“But that doesn’t seem to be what your own party is saying,” Smith interrupted, reminding Trump of the extent of the damage by reeling off the cold, hard facts – his party lost more than 40 House seats, at least eight Senate seats and five governorships.

“You said going into the midterms, ‘Put you on the ballot,’ so how can it not be that you were on the ballot?” Smith asked.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Independent. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.