Trump lost the midterms because he did exactly what he was elected to do

Democrats won a massive victory on Tuesday, sweeping to power in both houses of Congress.Critics of President Donald Trump are blaming Republican losses on his failures — and that’s fair. But what really drove the “blue wave” was Trump’s success.That’s because Trump followed through on almost every promise he made to voters in 2024.He secured the border.  The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.

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Never miss a story You can argue that his Immigration and Border Enforcement (ICE) raids were overzealous.But enforcing laws is never a pleasant sight.

He did it anyway.He confronted Iran. That meant higher gas prices.It also cost billions of dollars.

But stopping a nuclear Iran was a promise Trump made the day he came down the escalator.He championed AI. He did that even though voters are afraid of what AI means for their jobs, and blame data centers for rising utility costs.Trump said we had to beat China, regardless.In every case, Trump did what was in the national interest, even though it had massive political costs. And that’s why Americans elected Trump in the first place — not just to achieve 3.4% economic growth and 4.2% unemployment. Voters wanted someone to confront our country’s urgent problems, without holding a finger to the wind to see what polls wanted.We elected Trump to break things.

And he did.Some of his policies were bad. The tariffs, for example, raised prices on imported goods at a time when voters wanted Trump to reverse Biden-era inflation.Worse, the tariffs were clumsy, rushed through under emergency powers.One tariff even targeted islands whose sole inhabitants were penguins.The Supreme Court intervened, and the Treasury had to pay the tariffs back.Yet Trump has always believed in tariffs, and was elected on a promise to use them.

He was prep...