‘Not her best decision’: Trump lashes out, blames Melania

Donald Trump has claimed a ‘very big personal victory’ and put some of the blame on his wife for election results that saw Democrats fend off an expected red wave.

Donald Trump and wife Melania leave a polling station after voting in the US mid-term elections in Palm Beach, Florida. Picture: AFP

Former president Donald Trump has claimed a “very big personal victory” and reportedly put some of the blame on wife Melania for midterm election results in which Democrats outperformed expectations and fended off an expected red wave.

With the make up of both ­houses of congress unknown on the second day of counting, doubts emerged over Mr Trump’s plan to announce a 2024 presidential election bid next week.

“While in certain ways yesterday’s election was somewhat disappointing, from my personal standpoint it was a very big victory,” Mr Trump stated at 7am AEDT on social media, arguing 219 of the Republican congressional candidates he backed had won and 16 had lost. “Who has done better than that?”

Top Republicans on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) sought to downplay the worse-than-expected performance. “A win is a win,” said Michael McCaul, who would become chairman of the powerful House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, stressing ­Republican unity.

Reports emerged Mr Trump has blamed his wife, former first lady Melania, for Republicans’ poor performance, singling out her alleged pick of failed candidate celebrity medic Mehmet Oz “as not her best decision”, according to a top New York Times reporter with deep contacts within the Trump world.

Maggie Haberman, who knows the former president well, having spent many hours with him and his entourage for a recent book on his political ascent, published last month, said Mr Trump was “furious this morning”. “Trump is ­indeed furious this morning, particularly about Mehmet Oz, and is blaming everyone who advised him to back Oz – including his wife, describing it as not her best decision, according to people close to him,” Haberman tweeted on ­social media on Thursday.

Trump is indeed furious this morning, particularly about Mehmet Oz, and is blaming everyone who advised him to back Oz -- including his wife, describing it as not her best decision, according to people close to him.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 9, 2022

The involvement of Mrs Trump, who maintained a low profile as first lady and an even lower one in her post-White House life, would have been news to most observers after Mr Trump actively campaigned for Dr Oz and other Republican Senate candidates pushed by Mr Trump across the nation.

Dr Oz lost in Pennsylvania to Democrat lieutenant governor John Fetterman, who is still suffering the after-effects of a stroke.

Mrs Trump, 52, a former model and mother of Mr Trump’s youngest son, Barron, has taken to marketing a range of digital nonfungible tokens since leaving the White House in 2020.

Speculation was rife that Mr Trump might delay or cancel a planned announcement for a 2024 presidential bid in Florida next week, after an election that saw a potential contender for the nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, win a second term in a landslide, one of the few Republican bright spots.

Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz celebrates with his wife Lisa during an election night event – before he lost the election. Picture: AFP.

In an exclusive interview with Fox a day before the election on Trump Force One, the former president’s private 757, Mr Trump threatened the Governor, who he branded a few days earlier as “DeSanctimonious”, his first public criticism and a sign Mr Trump ­believes the 44-year-old to be his strongest competition. “I would tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering – I know more about him than anybody – other than, perhaps, his wife,” the 76-year-old ex-president said.

Separately, MAGA firebrand Lauren Boebert, a high-profile strongly pro-gun-rights supporter, looked set to lose her Colorado congressional district.