特朗普输掉中期选举

Trump lost Congress, and he lost it thoroughly.

In this midterm election, Republicans lost their majority in both the House and the Senate.

This was the most serious political defeat of his term.

From now on, any bill he wants must first get past the Democrats.

To understand this defeat, we have to go back to mid-February of this year.

An economic adviser walked into the White House, bringing charts showing strong economic data.

A few days later, Trump launched a war against Iran.

The war lasted several months, and more than twenty American service members died.

It cost American taxpayers more than 47 billion dollars.

US gasoline prices were also pushed up by 40 percent.

In the spring of this year, advisers warned him that the war would drag down the midterms.

According to US media reports, his answer at the time was that there was still enough time to figure something out.

Conservative commentator Matt Walsh put it more bluntly.

He said this was the greatest political blunder in the past two decades.

What also cost the Republicans points were some domestic matters.

In January of this year, Border Patrol agents shot and killed a person in Minneapolis.

The deceased was named Alex Pretti, a nurse.

The hardline immigration policy turned into a political burden from then on.

Because of this, Trump replaced the Secretary of Homeland Security.

In the Senate races, he strongly backed his own loyal supporters in four states.

Those were Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Texas.

In the end, the Democrats won all four of those seats.

By September, gasoline prices soared within a single week, and diesel prices hit a record.

Democratic strategists began pouring money into districts once thought safe.

These included open seats in Florida and Texas.

Advisers repeatedly urged him to talk about prices and about ordinary families' expenses.

According to reports, he called these polls fake.

The day before the election, he gave a speech by the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

That speech lasted nearly an hour, and most of it was about remaking Washington.

He mentioned adding a giant arch here, but rarely spoke about prices.

Afterwards, Trump said the biggest problem was that I wasn't on the ballot.

The head of an important Republican campaign organization gave a completely different explanation.

He said the problem was the economy.