A “fuming” Donald Trump has reportedly blamed his wife for the poor showing of some of his favoured candidates in the US midterm elections.
The former US president’s anger reportedly rose as he watched Wednesday’s results.
It was partly sparked by the loss of celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in the the Pennsylvania senate race to Democrat John Fetterman.
On Thursday, sources said Mr Trump blamed wife Melania and Fox News host Sean Hannity, for pushing him to endorse Dr Oz. He also laid the blame for some of his other failures with aides.
New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman said Mr Trump was “furious” – and had labelled Mrs Trump’s push for the TV doctor as “not her best decision”.
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“Worth remembering that Trump is a grown man who endorsed Oz over the objection of some of the people closest to him, and instead went beyond just endorsing and attacked Dave McCormick from the stage at a rally,” Haberman said.
Mr Trump was possibly the biggest loser from this week’s midterm elections, with at least 14 of his hand-picked candidates projected to lose.
“This is a sinking ship,” one top Trump adviser told ABC News.
“We’re not going to beat that.”
Another Republican operative said it was “the end of the Trump era and the dawn of the DeSantis era”.
“Like every other Trump catastrophe, he did this to himself with stupid and reckless decisions,” he said.
Ron DeSantis, who could be a main Republican challenger to Mr Trump in 2024, romped in to be returned as Florida governor. He defeated Democratic challenger Charlie Crist by nearly 20 percentage points, fuelling speculation he will announce a presidential run.
Mr Trump has fallen out with Mr DeSantis after previously talking up his chances. He has taken to mocking Mr DeSantis at rallies and arguing that the governor would not be a viable contender for the nomination if he ran.
Mr Trump is expected to announce another presidential bid as soon as next week, promising a “big announcement” from his Mar-A-Lago home in Florida on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, President Joe Biden said he intended to run for re-election and would likely make a final decision by early next year, after declaring this week’s election results good for democracy.
Mr Biden, a Democrat who turns 80 this month, has regularly faced questions on whether he will seek a second term.
“Our intention is to run again. That’s been our intention,” he said at the White House on Wednesday.
“This is ultimately a family decision.”
Mr Biden said his family wanted him to run and he did not feel rushed to make a final decision.
He said he would do so unrelated to any announcement from Mr Trump.
Mr Biden has spent his first two years in office warning against threats to democracy after Mr Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and did not accept Mr Biden’s legitimate victory.
He underscored those arguments in the final days of the midterm elections.
Republicans made modest gains in the elections and are likely to take control of the House of Representatives but control of the Senate hinges on three races that remained too close to call late on Wednesday.
A so-called “red wave” or large Republican takeover did not occur.
“It was a good day, I think, for democracy,” Mr Biden said.
He acknowledged that the results showed Americans were frustrated, however.
Inflation was a big topic for voters.
White House officials have expressed a sense of vindication that Democrats did better than expected after Mr Biden focused his campaign pitch largely on preventing threats to US democracy, securing abortion rights and extolling his economic policies.
Republicans are expected to try to undo some of those policies and prevent him from achieving further goals.
Mr Biden said he was prepared to work with Republicans.
“The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans be prepared to work with me as well,” he said.
Mr Biden said he would veto efforts to pass a national ban on abortion and oppose tax cuts for the wealthy, two policy proposals Republicans may pursue.
He said he would invite Democratic and Republican leaders to the White House to discuss priorities going forward when he returned from a trip to Asia.
The White House has prepared for a host of investigations that may come from a Republican-controlled House, including over his son Hunter’s business dealings.
Mr Biden said the American people would look at such probes for what he said they were – “almost comedy” – but said he could not control what they did.
-with AAP
