WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Wednesday fell back on a favorite excuse to explain Republicans’ disastrous performance in Tuesday’s off-year election: It wasn’t his fault, notwithstanding exit polls that said otherwise.
“If you read the pollsters, the shutdown was a big factor, negative for the Republicans and that was a big factor,” Trump told Republican senators at a White House breakfast. “And they say that I wasn’t on the ballot was the biggest factor, but I don’t know about that. But I was honored that they said that.”
Exit polling from Tuesday, though, suggests that Trump was, in fact, on the ballot, at least for those who came out to vote that day.
In New Jersey, which Trump lost by only six points in 2024, a full 47% of voters “strongly disapproved” of Trump, a group that voted 97-2 for Democrat Mikie Sherrill over Trump-endorsed Republican Jack Ciattarelli. Among the 8% who “somewhat disapproved” of Trump, the vote was 67-31 in favor of Sherrill.
What’s more, 40% of New Jersey voters said one reason they came out to vote was to oppose Trump, while only 13% said they came out to support the president.
