Trump Shares Posts Doubting Midterm Totals After Saying He'd Accept Them

President Donald Trump spent Saturday amplifying posts that question Democratic vote totals in Texas and across the country, reposting them on Truth Social. One post described Gina Hinojosa's showing in the Texas governor's race as 'Looney Tunes numbers.' The activity comes four days after Trump told the New York Times on election night that he was 'absolutely willing to accept those results.'

The Texas post came from writer and commercial fisherman Donald Ward, who argued on X that Democratic turnout there couldn't be explained by weak Republican participation. Ward said Republican Governor Greg Abbott pulled about 100,000 more votes than in his 2022 reelection but still lost to Hinojosa, who gained 1.7 million more votes than Democratic gubernatorial nominee Beto O'Rourke had four years earlier. 'Those are Looney Tunes numbers,' the post said, adding that genuine enthusiasm would have meant lines around the block at every polling station. Ward also stacked Hinojosa's total against those of Kamala Harris in 2024 and Joe Biden in 2020, calling them 'not normal midterms numbers.'

Minutes later, Trump shared a post from Kevin Bass featuring a chart comparing the 2022 nationwide House popular vote with projected 2026 totals. 'Republican votes stayed the same. Democrats materialized 20 million new votes,' the post said. The chart listed 54.2 million Republican and 51.3 million Democratic House votes in 2022, against projected 2026 figures of 55.6 million and 70.4 million, with the graphic noting the 2026 numbers were estimates based on 85 percent of the expected vote being counted. Neither post offered evidence that the reported results were inaccurate or the product of fraud.

Trump also shared a lengthy post claiming an unusually consistent swing toward Democrats across 59 Senate and gubernatorial races and calling for ballot-level scrutiny, including paper ballot hand counts and comparisons of poll-book records with counted votes. Another repost, alongside a chart of Texas Senate vote totals, asked: 'Does anyone believe this at all?' According to Newsweek, Trump has not said in these posts that the midterm results were fraudulent or that he no longer accepts them. Newsweek has contacted the White House and the Texas Secretary of State's office for comment.

The shift in tone follows a more conciliatory election night. Trump told the Times he would work with Democrats and 'we'll probably work something out,' and he credited them on Fox News, saying, 'I think the Democrats did a good job. I really do. They fought hard.' On Truth Social he also distanced himself from the defeat, writing, 'I wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!' He had been less definitive before Election Day, saying he would accept the outcome only if the elections were 'honest.'