It was expected to be a moment of triumph for Donald Trump, but it did not quite turn out that way.
The former US president appeared uneasy about underwhelming Republican performance in the midterms at an election watch party he hosted at his plush Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday night, after it was clear there would be no “red wave” that he had implored his supporters to deliver.
The election night gathering, organized in the large ballroom at his Florida property, was not an event where the often talkative Trump seemed particularly interested in addressing guests or even speaking to reporters after he delivered a short and solitary speech.
Trump, expected to announce his third campaign for the White House next week, had anticipated strengthening his position as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination by delivering wins for candidates he endorsed, but the results in the most competitive contests were decidedly mixed.
In Pennsylvania, the Democrat John Fetterman defeated the Republican Mehmet Oz to flip a Senate seat, while the Democrat Josh Shapiro won the governor’s race against the Republican Doug Mastriano. In Arizona, Kari Lake and Blake Masters, who followed Trump’s playbook, were both behind Democratic counterparts, though in Ohio, the Republican JD Vance did score a Senate win.
The close races for Trump-endorsed candidates appeared to confound the former president, whose only formal remarks came early in the evening, when he delivered a clipped speech standing in front of a row of American flags at the head of the ornate white-and-gold ballroom.
Trump had entered to rapturous applause after top aides from his political team and political action committees – some of whom had been ordered to spend the evening at Mar-a-Lago – and donors had filled the room in anticipation of what the crowd regarded as the main draw of the event.
But in an indication of his unease, Trump simply said it had been an “interesting evening” before praising the Republican Senate candidate Katie Britt, whose win in Alabama was considered a foregone conclusion.
Trump was silent about the Florida governor – and his potential 2024 presidential rival – Ron DeSantis’s sweeping re-election.
After his remarks, Trump sat entrenched at a large table near the front of the ballroom as he watched the results of the election flash across a television tuned to Fox News.
Trump, typically so tempted to address assembled reporters, remained at his table for several hours while he held court with some of his most trusted advisers, including the Save America Pac chief, Susie Wiles, his in-house counsel Boris Epshteyn, and his longtime donor and confidant David Bossie.
The lack of a “red wave” in the House and Senate was out of Trump’s control to an extent, though at least some Republican defeats in competitive races appeared to have come because voters rejected candidates perceived as too far-right, people close to campaign polling suggested.
Republicans widely acknowledged that their performance had been disappointing. “Definitely not a Republican wave, that’s for darn sure,” the Republican senator Lindsey Graham told NBC News.
But as a storm descended on to West Palm Beach, lashing rain against Mar-a-Lago from all sides, and the results became clear, the ballroom emptied within an hour of Trump’s speech while advisers retreated upstairs to Trump’s office or simply left the property.
The former president finally rose from his table shortly after midnight – but only after reporters had been strategically ushered out.
