Less than ۲۴ hours after suffering historic party losses in the US midterm elections, Donald Trump gathered reporters and network TV cameras at the White House to congratulate his team.
“The whole thing is a miracle, and it’s all because of you,” the US president said into a microphone on Wednesday afternoon.
He was not referring to the blue wave that swept the country as Democrats retook control of the US Congress, but his controversial White House ballroom.
Standing on the construction site on Wednesday, the US president boasted about the ballroom’s “magnificent” columns carved out of limestone, ۵۰ft-high ceilings, ability to hold more than ۳۰۰ guests, heavy-set beams, “drone-proof” roof, thick marble floors and military-grade bunker.
He went into great detail about the construction of the ballroom, seemingly teasing the fact that it would open soon. He pivoted to discuss his love for construction projects, and his other controversial efforts to beautify Washington DC.
For more than ۲۰ minutes, there was no mention of the elephant in the room: the fact that dozens of Trump-endorsed candidates in competitive races for the Senate and House of Representatives nationwide lost their elections to Democrats on Tuesday.
When Doug Burgum, the secretary of the interior, took the microphone, he declared Wednesday to be “a day of celebration and a day of gratitude”.
Only when the US president finally took questions from reporters did he address his party’s dismal performance in the midterms, seemingly unfazed that Democrats outperformed expectations.
“Look, I’ll get along probably with the Democrats, unless they want to be destructive, but I have the power of the veto,” Trump said. He admitted it was “largely true” that the war with Iran played a role in helping Democrats, because it drove up fuel prices, but insisted the conflict was worth it.
Democrats took back the House and the Senate and won in several gubernatorial races. Senate candidates in historically red states, such as South Carolina, Texas, Kansas and North Carolina, defeated Republicans.
Even in districts gerrymandered over the last year to assist Republicans, at the behest of Trump, Democrats managed to retain control.
Trump, who spent months urging his supporters to pretend he was on the ballot, swiftly pointed out that he was not actually on the ballot as the scale of Tuesday’s Republican losses became clear. But this election was widely seen as a referendum on the president, and his agenda.
His decision to appear on Wednesday at the site of his planned ballroom mirrored an extraordinary decision to deliver his final address of the campaign at Washington’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, describing – in detail – changes to its pipes, the grass surrounding the area, and granite.
For months, Trump has pulled focus to his various construction projects across the capital, including the ballroom, the refurbished Reflecting Pool, a planned triumphal arch, the cleaning of statues and monuments and a new White House helipad.
Meanwhile, Americans have grown increasingly frustrated with Trump’s performance as president – blaming his economic policies and war with Iran for increasing the cost of living.
But Trump continued to claim on Wednesday that voters were not rejecting him by voting for Democrats. “Look, if I were on the ballot we would’ve won,” Trump asserted to reporters.
