One of the most familiar voices on Fox News watched the midterm numbers roll in and handed President Donald Trump a label no sitting president wants.
Brit Hume, Fox News’ chief political analyst, called Trump a lame-duck president on the air late Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, as midterm returns showed Democrats headed toward control of Congress. By Wednesday, Nov. 4, Democrats had flipped both the House and the Senate.
Hume made the call as the numbers came in. “And Trump is going to be a lame duck,” he said. “I mean, because he’s only got two more years to go. So people are going to say, ‘OK, Democrats, what you got?’ And it’s going to be an interesting question what it is.”
A Warning Aimed at the Winners
Hume turned the same skepticism on the victors, arguing that scrutiny now swings to Democrats after their years in the minority. The party ran its midterm campaign largely on opposition to Trump and on his war with Iran, he said, and he suggested that message has a ceiling.
He predicted a fractious incoming Democratic coalition, with newly elected democratic socialists pulling the party leftward. Some Democrats will push to get a few things accomplished, Hume said, though he doubted that impulse gets far. The hatred of Trump inside the party’s constituency is so intense and has proved so enduring, he said, that even a lame-duck president may not be enough to pull the party off it.
Fox News posted the segment on Nov. 4 as a 2:14 clip titled “Brit Hume has a warning for Democrats,” a walkthrough of what House and Senate control would mean for the party and a weigh-in on Trump’s new status. Hume had been on the air twice before that. On Election Day, hours before results, he discussed Trump’s midterm push, the issues driving voters to the polls and the president’s influence on key races on “The Story.” On election night, in a 39-second hit on “FOX News Democracy 26,” he evaluated whether Trump’s high-profile rally blitz energized the Republican base or inadvertently drove Democrats to vote.
“I Wasn’t on the Ballot”
Trump blamed his own absence from the ballot in a Truth Social post on election night, Nov. 3. “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” he wrote.
In an election-night interview, the president pointed to his “total veto power, so they have to come to us.” He said he would accept the election results and is willing to work with the new Democratic Congress. He has warned Iran that he would finish the job if the regime does not behave; Iran’s ayatollah projected defiance after the U.S. election results.
The Decoy Candidate Who Drew Thousands
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) expanded their influence within the Democratic Party this cycle, and far-left members are positioned to reshape the incoming Congress. Abdul El-Sayed won a Senate race. Rep. Ilhan Omar won reelection despite fraud investigations.
Democrat James Talarico beat state Attorney General Ken Paxton for a Texas Senate seat, becoming the first Democrat to win one in decades, and Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa unseated incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott. Democrats also won in Iowa and Kansas, while Republicans held on in Florida. Byron Donalds won the Florida gubernatorial race and credited God and family.
Alaska produced the strangest result of the night. An alleged ballot plot marked the state’s Senate race, where a candidate known as “Decoy Dan” drew thousands of votes. Sen. Dan Sullivan called out Democrats over the episode in a speech to his supporters. As of Thursday evening, Nov. 5, Democrat Mary Peltola led Sullivan by just over 600 votes and the race remained uncalled. If no candidate wins a majority, ranked-choice votes will be tabulated Nov. 18.
Only One of the 10 Largest
Within hours of the chambers flipping, a fight over Republican leadership took shape. Vice President JD Vance blamed the Iran war for the party’s losses and laid out a plan for winning back voters who backed the Trump-Vance ticket in 2024. In a lengthy post on X on the morning of Nov. 4, he gave four reasons voters did not back the GOP: the war in Iran, living costs, not putting “America First,” and the U.S.’s relationship with Israel. “Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats,” Vance wrote.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went further, describing the results as “close to an extinction-level event” for Republicans. At a press conference Wednesday, Nov. 4, he added: “In January, when everyone in office leaves who are either term-limited or got voted out, of the 10 largest states in this union, only one state will have Republican control … the state of Florida.”
“This was a rejection of Republicans in Washington, and Democrats just happened to be the beneficiary. Now it’s going to take a lot of time and effort to rebuild,” DeSantis said at the same press conference.
