Senate Democratic leader Schumer criticized President Trump’s denialism of polls, saying a return to baseless claims is inevitable.
Published November 9, 2026
US President Donald Trump reversed course less than a week after questioning the integrity of last week’s midterm elections, congratulating Democrats on their victories and saying he was ready to accept the results.
“Does anyone really believe this ‘election’ was honest?” President Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Monday. “How can the polls be so wrong?”
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Republicans questioned whether polls were once again underestimating their support, as they did in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential elections, but the results were ultimately the opposite.
Polls generally pointed to a strong night for Democrats, suggesting the party was well-positioned to hold a majority in the House and have a realistic chance of winning the Senate.
In fact, Pew Research released a report analyzing pre-election polling data and found that the data underestimated Democratic support by at least two percentage points in 23 of 27 gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races.
Trump also claimed on Truth Social that some early voting votes were cast so high that it made a Republican victory impossible. He did not provide any evidence of election fraud or wrongdoing. Over the past few days, the president has posted posts on Truth Social that include graphs that question voter turnout data.
The post, in addition to a series of victories in traditional Republican strongholds, marks Trump’s first clear public challenge to the integrity of the interim financial results since Democrats won overwhelming majorities in both chambers of Congress.
This latest statement came a day after President Trump appeared to accept the election results in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes. Asked about his decision to congratulate Democrats, Trump acknowledged doing so and said he was open to working with the incoming Democratic majority.
Immediately after the Democrats’ victory was announced, President Trump congratulated them on a call with CBS News and later told Fox News that the Democrats had “done a good job.”
He told the New York Times last week that he “absolutely” accepts the election results.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer responded to President Trump’s recent comments, saying the president’s “return to election denialism is inevitable.”
“He can whine all he wants, but nothing can stop this inescapable truth. For the final two years of his presidency, Trump will face the largest Democratic Congressional majority in decades, all because he made an unprecedented mistake,” Schumer wrote in X.
The Republican Party has strengthened its stance to distance itself from President Trump following its defeat in the midterms. Even conservative commentator Megyn Kelly, who supported the 2024 presidential bid, responded to claims of election fraud with a simple “fuck it” response in “X.”
