Trump questions midterm fairness after Republican losses

President Donald Trump has questioned the fairness of the US midterm elections, without identifying a race or offering specific evidence in his Truth Social post.

His comments on 9 November followed Republican losses in the 3 November vote. Democrats were set to take control of Congress, according to a report by news agencies ANP and AFP.

“Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest,” Trump wrote. He asked how polls could have been so wrong and claimed that some large batches of early votes had made it impossible to win. He also said: “It’s all about the machines.”

Trump named no state or contest and did not explain what he believed had happened to the votes. A large batch of votes, or a difference between polls and results, is not in itself evidence of an unfair count.

Early voting was permitted in several states. At a rally in Alaska on 13 October, Trump had encouraged people to vote early, by post or on election day. That appeal concerned how to cast a vote, rather than how batches were later counted.

ANP and AFP reported that Trump had initially accepted the outcome. Before the vote, he told a reporter he would accept the results if the elections were honest, according to Mediaite. Trump has previously made unfounded claims of election fraud, particularly after his 2020 presidential defeat to Joe Biden.