Trump questions whether midterms were "honest," days after accepting results

Asked later by reporters whether he thought the midterms were rigged, Trump said, "Well, I think the numbers were terrible in terms of those early votes," before turning to the still-undecided Senate race in Alaska, NBC News reported. A White House official pointed to Trump's earlier statement that he would respect the results "if they're honest elections."

The results so far: Democrats have won 54 Senate seats and 254 House seats, giving them majorities in both chambers, according to the BBC. Senate races in Alaska and Mississippi have not been called.

Timeline of Trump's statements: On Oct. 27, asked at Joint Base Andrews whether he would accept the results, Trump said, "I will, if they're honest elections," Hannity.com reported. On election night, Nov. 3, he told The New York Times he was "absolutely willing to accept those results" and posted that if he had been on the ballot, "we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!" In a 60 Minutes interview aired Sunday, he said his deportation policies "might be too tough" and that voters "didn't like the war. They didn't like that gasoline was up," according to NBC. On Monday, he questioned whether the vote was honest.

What the evidence shows: Trump asked how the polls could be so wrong. Pollsters did miss, but in Democrats' favor: a preliminary Pew Research Center analysis found polling averages understated the Democratic margin by at least 2 points in 23 of 27 Senate and governor races, by about 4 points on average, and the House vote showed Democrats ahead by about 12 points against a nearly 9-point lead in the RealClearPolitics average. Pew said it is too early to know why. On vote counting, MIT political scientist Charles Stewart III told the BBC that results came in with "the standard patterns we see in terms of when the votes are reported," and state and local officials said voting had been mostly problem-free, the BBC reported. The main reported problems were weather in Arizona and malfunctioning machines in Westchester County, New York, where officials used backup machines and said every vote would be counted.

The reaction: Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the post a "pathetic return to election denialism" and said Trump will face "the largest Democratic congressional majorities in decades," The Washington Times reported. Trump has raised concerns about voting machines before: on Election Day in 2022 he posted, "They are trying to steal the election with bad Machines and DELAY," and in August 2025 he called for ending mail-in voting and what he described as "highly inaccurate" machines.

Before the election: The Justice Department sent letters raising concerns about noncitizen voting to several Democratic-led states, which a judge found was an attempt to intimidate election officials, NBC reported. It also filed lawsuits challenging the count and certification of votes in states including California and Alaska; judges ruled against the department in nearly all of them, according to the BBC.

What's still unknown: whether Trump or his allies will take any formal step, such as a lawsuit or a request for recounts or audits, beyond Monday's post; which early-vote counts and machines he was referring to; and how the uncalled Senate races in Alaska and Mississippi end.

Trump's post is quoted from his Truth Social account. His later remarks to reporters and the White House response follow NBC News; the Oct. 27 "honest elections" quote follows Hannity.com; Schumer's response and Trump's 2022 post follow The Washington Times; seat counts and MIT's Charles Stewart follow the BBC. Polling figures come from Pew Research Center's preliminary Nov. 6 analysis, which used unofficial counts. Trump did not specify which states, counties or machines he meant. Outlet lean, for transparency: The Washington Times and Hannity.com are generally seen as right-leaning; NBC News, The Washington Post and POLITICO as left-leaning; BBC, AFP, The Hill and Pew are listed without a tag.