President Donald Trump gathered reporters and network television cameras at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after his party suffered historic losses in the US midterm elections, to congratulate his team.
"The whole thing is a miracle, and it's all because of you," the president said into a microphone. He was not referring to the blue wave that swept the country as Democrats retook control of the US Congress, but to his controversial White House ballroom.
Standing on the construction site, Trump praised the ballroom's "magnificent" columns carved from limestone, its 50ft-high ceilings, its capacity to hold more than 300 guests, its heavy-set beams, its "drone-proof" roof, its thick marble floors and its military-grade bunker. He described the construction in extensive detail, appearing to tease that the venue would open soon, and pivoted to his love of building projects and his other contested efforts to beautify Washington DC.
For more than 20 minutes, the president made no mention of the elephant in the room: dozens of Trump-endorsed candidates in competitive Senate and House races nationwide had lost to Democrats on Tuesday. When Doug Burgum, the secretary of the interior, took the microphone, he declared it "a day of celebration and a day of gratitude".
Only when Trump finally took questions from reporters did he address his party's dismal midterm performance, appearing unfazed that Democrats had outperformed expectations. "Look, I'll get along probably with the Democrats, unless they want to be destructive, but I have the power of the veto," he said. He conceded it was "largely true" that the war with Iran had helped Democrats by driving up fuel prices, but insisted the conflict was worth it.
Democrats took back both the House and the Senate and won several gubernatorial races. Senate candidates in historically red states, including South Carolina, Texas, Kansas and North Carolina, defeated Republicans. Even in districts gerrymandered over the past year to assist Republicans at Trump's behest, Democrats managed to retain control.
Trump, who had spent months urging supporters to pretend he was on the ballot, quickly noted that he was not actually on the ballot as the scale of Tuesday's losses became clear. Yet the election was widely seen as a referendum on the president and his agenda. "Look, if I were on the ballot we would've won," he asserted to reporters, maintaining that voters were not rejecting him by backing Democrats.
His decision to appear at the planned ballroom site echoed an extraordinary moment from the campaign, when he delivered his final address at Washington's Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and described in detail changes to its pipes, the surrounding grass and the granite. For months, Trump has drawn attention to construction projects across the capital, including the ballroom, the refurbished Reflecting Pool, a planned triumphal arch, the cleaning of statues and monuments and a new White House helipad.
Meanwhile, Americans have grown increasingly frustrated with Trump's performance as president, blaming his economic policies and the war with Iran for the rising cost of living.
