WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - It’s been a year since Donald Trump’s decisive win in the 2024 presidential election, and the White House had planned an anniversary rollout on Wednesday highlighting the promises kept by the Republican leader since he returned to office.
Instead, the president and his Republican allies were left grappling with a string of Democratic victories in off-year elections, a rare setback for Trump as voters in a handful of states signaled resistance to his agenda.
Trump, known for resisting defeat, reacted predictably.
He blamed Democrats for a government shutdown - the longest in U.S. history - that he said contributed to his party’s losses, cajoled Republicans to change Senate rules to make it easier to pass his agenda and distanced himself from the results by noting the absence of his own name on the ballot.
But he also acknowledged that the night had not gone well for Republicans and, somewhat uncharacteristically, suggested they had lessons to learn from their loss.
