Democrats win big after Trump alienates voters

President Trump told Americans to vote as if he were on the ballot. They did. And now a lot of Republicans probably wish the president had never opened his mouth.

It wasn’t a blue wave — it was a blue earthquake, as the New York Times put it . It’s not easy to lose both houses of Congress — but thanks to the president, Republicans managed to do just that.

Two years ago Trump told voters that when he’s elected president, inflation would come down. It’s higher today than when Joe Biden left office. He promised lower food prices. Anybody who’s been to a supermarket lately knows how that worked out. He said the war with Iran would last a few weeks. Wrong again.

A recent NBC News poll finds that 71 percent of Americans think we’re on the wrong track . You’d think a number like that might have persuaded the president to spend the closing days of the campaign talking about grocery bills.

But Trump had a few other things on his mind. He spoke about his fascination with the rear ends of a Republican senator and singer Nicki Minaj .

The day before Election Day, in his final public speech, he went to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and spoke for more than 20 minutes about gravel, new grass, pipes and algae.

A week earlier he told a rally that “ Norway sucks ” because the folks there who hand out the Nobel Peace Prize neglected to give him one.

He called Bill Maher “ a complete and total loser ” because Maher apparently didn’t give the president the respect he thinks he deserves.

Imagine being a Republican candidate in a close race, hoping the president might say a few words about the cost of living, but instead you get his musings about algae, Norway, Bill Maher and rear ends.

Make no mistake, Republicans got what they deserved. For two years they said virtually nothing about tariffs or the war or those inexcusable pardons on his first day in office of the rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — or anything else Trump said or did that hurt the party. Not in public, anyway. In private they knew what everybody else knew — that the president was in way over his head … on the war, on inflation, on affordability, which he recklessly called a “hoax.”

He never told the voters that he understood their pain. He couldn’t. Because he has no empathy.

His Republican allies may think they were being loyal to their leader, but it was shameless cowardice dressed up as loyalty. Sycophancy comes with a price — a price Republicans are now paying.

In the world of politics, there is nothing especially remarkable about a president hurting his enemies. It takes a special talent to do this much damage to your friends.

But in spite of everything, Trump did have a legitimate case to make against the Democrats. When he told voters that the party’s left wing wanted to usher in a socialist America, he could point to progressives whose wish-list includes a national wealth tax, Medicare for all, abolishment of ICE, abandonment of Israel — and that’s for openers. Some progressives would go further and move for a federal takeover of some corporations. The Democratic Socialists of America want to defund the police and shut down prisons . They have no use for capitalism and aren’t afraid to say so.

And yet, in spite of all that, the Democrats won, because it wasn’t only Trump’s policies that voters rejected — it was Trump himself. They rejected his vulgarity, his out-of-control narcissism, his unlimited appetite for vengeance.

And the worst of Trump rubbed off on the president’s allies, who somehow figured that nastiness might be the path to victory.

In Kansas, incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall (R) accused his Democratic opponent of “probably grooming” children . Marshall lost.

In Texas, Republicans insinuated that Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is gay. Talarico won.

And President Trump called Michigan’s Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed a “ vicious, violent jihadist .” El-Sayed won.

So did Democratic Senate candidates in Maine, Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina and South Carolina — and before it’s over, maybe a few more states.

As impressive as the Democratic victory was, it was hardly a mandate for them to do a lot of things nobody voted for. Do Americans really want Trump impeached for a third time? Progressives might, but they don’t represent Middle America. Do Americans really want non-stop investigations of Trump and anybody that got close to him during the past two years? Do they want the socialist wing of the party to run roughshod over more moderate Democrats?

If Democrats don’t bring down prices and give Americans hope that we’re heading in the right direction, in two years they may very well be where Republicans are now: devastated and disheartened, on the outside looking in.

Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page .