Here are some photos from Wednesday, just hours after the blue tsunami midterms. Donald Trump stepped outside the White House to check on the construction of his fakakta ballroom. He looked exhausted, unkempt and out of it. This was one of the worst losses he’s ever had, combined with the 2020 election. According to the Daily Beast and the Daily Mail, up until Election Night, Trump was living in a bubble of delusion that the midterms would be good for him and good for the Republicans. He was apparently catatonic watching the results come in on Tuesday night.
Donald Trump was so angry at his breathtaking midterm defeat that he holed himself up in the dark with his ever-present aide, Natalie Harp, as the results rolled in.
A White House insider told the Daily Mail that aides ordered platters of appetizers from the Cheesecake Factory in the “delusional” expectation that there’d be something to celebrate as the results of the nationwide contests poured in on Tuesday night. But by 10 p.m. the uneaten trays of sliders and eggrolls were turning stale in the East Room as even top administration officials fled the building to drown their sorrows in the bars of D.C.
Within an hour of the first results, Trump was so furious that he briefly lost the ability to speak, holed up in his second-floor private residence with Harp, his executive assistant, and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
“He’s watching Fox News barely uttering a word and paralyzed into silence,” one insider told the Mail. “It’s very, very dark in the residence,” another added. “It’s a dark scene.”
The 80-year-old president rode into Tuesday’s polls with his approval at a miserable 32 percent and with Democrats enjoying a 9-point advantage on the generic congressional ballot. The Democrats made good on that lead to sweep both the House and Senate in a blue tsunami that will leave Trump struggling to get his head above water for the remainder of his second term.
Ever eager to feed him good news, Trump’s advisers kept promising him a midterm victory right up until the polls opened. Wiles in particular was telling White House staff that Republicans would come out on top as late as September, one source told the Mail. And the insider has now also revealed that Trump’s former campaign manager Chris LaCivita had been delivering the same message to the president at weekly Thursday meetings.
That unfounded optimism apparently had West Wing staffers chattering about the GOP expanding their majority in both the House and Senate even as late as Tuesday morning.
“Delusional,” as the Mail’s source put it. “They were delusional right until the very end.”
Another insider recalled watching the president’s longtime comms strategist Jason Miller panicking and doused in sweat as newscasters announced one embarrassing Republican electoral defeat after another.
The Cheesecake Factory apps!! LMAO. All of us who remember the Obama years clearly recall the infamous moment during Fox News’ Election Night 2012 coverage, when Karl Rove had an on-air meltdown over Obama’s landslide reelection. Megyn Kelly, the Fox News anchor at the time, had to go to Rove off-camera and ask him if his projections were just emotional-support numbers he made up to soothe his feelings (I’m paraphrasing). My point is that we should never underestimate Republicans’ ability to delude themselves, and when reality comes crashing down on them, they are known to freak out, loudly and publicly. It does not surprise me that Trump’s people lied to him, nor does it surprise me that his people were too stupid to understand which way the wind was blowing politically. Also: I would love it if the incoming Democratic Congress shut down this fakakta ballroom crap. Just raze it to the ground.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- Washington, DC President Donald Trump addresses construction workers during an event at the White House ballroom construction site, where he signs the final steel beam that will be installed as part of the new ballroom project in Washington, DC Pictured: Donald Trump BACKGRID USA 4 NOVEMBER 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC President Donald Trump addresses construction workers during an event at the White House ballroom construction site, where he signs the final steel beam that will be installed as part of the new ballroom project in Washington, DC Pictured: Donald Trump BACKGRID USA 4 NOVEMBER 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC President Donald Trump addresses construction workers during an event at the White House ballroom construction site, where he signs the final steel beam that will be installed as part of the new ballroom project in Washington, DC Pictured: Donald Trump BACKGRID USA 4 NOVEMBER 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC President Donald Trump addresses construction workers during an event at the White House ballroom construction site, where he signs the final steel beam that will be installed as part of the new ballroom project in Washington, DC Pictured: Donald Trump BACKGRID USA 4 NOVEMBER 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC President Donald Trump addresses construction workers during an event at the White House ballroom construction site, where he signs the final steel beam that will be installed as part of the new ballroom project in Washington, DC Pictured: Donald Trump BACKGRID USA 4 NOVEMBER 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
They ordered from the Cheesecake Factory after Obama called his renovations Saddam Hussein’s Cheesecake Factory? Lolz.
I read or heard somewhere that all those delicious appetizers from the Cheesecake Factory were left uneaten by the would-be celebrants after the Republican won the midterm elections. LOL. All the people who were meant to eat the food left after they realized the Democrats demolished the GOP at the ballot box.
Yes, it’s quoted in this piece.
Do you mean, “after Democrats won the midterm elections“?
@bisynaptic, no not “Democrat” it said “would be celebrants after Republican” which means they would have been celebrating a Republican win but instead turned into non celebrants since Dems won.
I am Canadian but I can’t even use any words to express my joy and satisfaction in the Democrats winning this midterm. God is good all the time. The Republicans are still having meltdowns. I was horrified though, watching CNN anchors asking a new Democrat elect senator if they would distance themselves from Dr. Abdul El Sayed, it’s horrific that this Islamophobia is still ongoing even after the elections.
These people have to believe their own hype. It’s the engine that keeps them going. Tear at that, just a little bit, ripple it, wobble it, nudge it, give it a kick, and they absolutely go nuts. Because their self-image is tied up in it. Entirely embedded in it. It’s the definition of narcissism. Ask them to turn their attention to the state of the world, the facts of other people’s lived experience, and two things happen: 1. They wobble and panic and go deer-in-headlights; 2. They get furious. Becuase you’ve hit them twice: you’ve taken them out of their comfort zone where the bask in their own aura and self-congratulation; and, also, you’ve put them in a situation where they feel clueless, outclassed by their real predicament, and utterly exposed. It’s what happens when a group is completely invested in its own self image. It doesn’t just affect Americans; good Germans, French nationalists, Israelis who are secular and liberal yet who support Bibi….. all of them retain some mystical sense of communion with the cult of personality that they attribute to a leader figure, but it’s just the mirror of their ego.
Trump certainly believes it and so do nutjob cultists like Hart. But the delusion is clearly not universal. We see that in the statements from Vance and DeSantis. Trump is crazy. People like Vance and DeSantis are worse. They fully understand what they are doing and know it is wrong, but they go along with it for personal gain anyway.
And Rubio. None of them better show their faces in 2028 trying to be president. They are all complicit.
That begs the question which puzzles me to no end. How could they really believe that they could so horribly abuse the American people (even their own stupid supporters) and that we would just take it? Send the military to police American cities, deploy a secret police force to terrorize and gun down people in the streets of quiet American cities, and gut our social safety net so that people go hungry and without medical care. That’s just the start of it! Start a totally unnecessary war, causing prices to skyrocket. I could go on and on. But they did all that and thought we wouldn’t fight back at the ballot box? That’s what stymies me. 🤔
@ Brassy Rebel – It is because they are driven by greed, not by a moral compass. They figure they will reap the rewards but not suffer the consequences because they are too smart to fail.
But even Hitler in thirties Germany knew enough not to alienate the German citizenry before completely consolidating power. That’s usually Authoritarianism 101.
@Brassy Rebel: they must have very short attention spans, and must be very present-oriented.
Hitler was a true believer that everything he was doing was for the glory of the Vaterland and its people. Snakes like Vance and DeSantis are venal opportunists solely out for themselves. They think they are much smarter than the rest of us and will get away with it.
@ Brassy Rebel, they drank their own Kool Aid! LOL
Orangezilla is frightened he’ll face another impeachment trial and the third time maybe a charm. Hegseth is already set up as the sacrifical lamb and the talk is loud.
Oh please, not another impeachment trial. The “impeachment” for him is this midterm disaster and the repudiation of his policies. Fixing his messes will take real work and another trial will be a distraction.
A conviction after impeachment would bar him from office for life, and shut down any nonsense about 2028. And it would send the message that this sh*t isn’t going to be permitted in the U.S.
But I’d prefer a conviction in the Hague.
Agree no impeachment of Trump as that will just rile up his supporters and make him a martyr. Let him slowly fade from relevance as a lame (Donald) duck. However, I want his family’s grifting fully investigated and I want impeachments and convictions of Hegseth, Miller, Kushner. There has to be consequences or there will be no end to future criminal activities.
Justice is not a distraction. We cannot continue to let the crimes of Republicans slide. That’s setting ourselves up for another January 6 or worse. Biden cleaned up the messes of Trump‘s first term only for Trump to blow it all up again in his second term. I want impeachment, I want arrests, I want trials, I want real jail time. These criminals need to know there will be harsh consequences for their treason and corruption, or they will keep doing it in the future.
@Lover – the distraction would be if the Democrats spend so much time and political capital on impeachment rather than addressing the issues that the public are worried about. Trump will be out of office and dead sooner than later. The effects of war, tarrifs, corruption, inflation, etc., will last much longer than that.
It is absolutely not a distraction to hold criminals responsible for their behavior. He violated dozens of laws in office, and impeachment is the LEAST of the consequences he must face for that. We absolutely cannot just shrug off his crimes.
ITA. Impeaching a very unpopular lame duck President would be politically stupid. Let’s not energize his base by making him a martyr.
Also, two years ago the Supreme Court said that presidents have broad criminal immunity for official acts so it really would be a waste of time. They’re better off going after his family in 2028 when he’s out of office and can’t use his pardon power to save them.
@QuiteContrary, please not The Hague, we don’t want him in our country 😉
(just joking. I agree he should stand trial).
We can multitask. We can work on bills and policy that brings fruitfulness back to the middle class while punishing those who broke the law.
The south lost the Civil War and the losers were treated like sick puupies who needed accomodations, and that’s exactly why a *certain* demographic never learns shit now. Because all this country has done is pacify villians. Get like Germany after WWII and start shaming these people while we rebuild. Humans are multifaceted. I promise we can do both.
He’s probably more afraid the Dems will claw back all the illegally gotten gains he and his family took. They need to return that Quatari spy jet, too.
This orange turd really thought he was king. The millions of people marching in every state for “No Kings” marches should have been his first clue.
I think so too and honestly, this would be the best way to punish him because all he cares about is his wealth.
Speechless?! That’s gotta be a first.
Enjoy your stale Cheesecake Factory food, suckers. (They didn’t even order any *cheesecake?!*) LOL.
Now let’s get this assclown IMPEACHED.
I would like to have a picture please.
I agree on the ballroom. Stop construction now and have people from the historic preservation board (or whatever it’s called) hire architects to plan something appropriate to replace it.
It’s a bunker. He thought he would continue as is (with unchecked power) for the next 2 years, then announce he wasn’t leaving the White House in 2028 because his term was “stolen” in 2020. So, yes, stop construction on that sh*t and rebuild the wing with historical accuracy, but modern amenities.
An exact replica of the demolished East Wing and the bulldozed Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. (Jackie designed two White House gardens and Lady Bird named one of them for her) The paved over Rose Garden must also be restored to its former beauty and the cost for all this should be covered by seizing the assets of the entire Trump family.
I agree with all this and only add remove all the gold embellishments in the Oval Office!
Good. I hope all the celebrations make his addled brain itch.
I hope they make his hemorrhoids unbearably itchy and painful.
Not just the biggest loss he has ever experienced; the biggest loss of anyone in our lifetime. Huge. No one has ever seen anything like it before.
(I’m doing his stupid YMCA dance in my head while I type this.)
“Trump was so furious that he briefly lost the ability to speak” A rage stroke that silenced him? If only.
I’d love to know how much of the numbers were self-delusion or desperate attempts to keep the boss happy. I’m sure we’ll know in the coming days – none of these losers can keep their mouths shut.
And if we’re in a CB office pool, my money’s on Suzie being the first one out the door.
I’m sure there will be a bloodletting, now that the cultish fever broke with the masses. But I do wonder whether there will be enough sycophants left to WANT to join his administration.
Well, he can’t even fill the press secretary position, especially now. Maybe Natalie can do it.
I don’t know of what’s being described is group psychopathy or group narcissism, but it’s definitely super not healthy and is dangerous for everyone. Just the delusion of confidently ordering Cheesecake Factory, I’m loling, and telling everyone how they’re going to win for months.
Mumster, there’s plenty of people who think the grift is still happening. Bottom feeders who were too incompetent/cartoonishly evil to be hired before will show up.
I read somewhere he was angry with Fox News and at first I didn’t get it.
Then I realized: they made him think they were winning.
People like him CANNOT handle their bubble being burst – he will do what he has always done, lash out badly to everyone. The next 2 years are going to be hell for Americans and the rest of the world if he remains President.
I had hoped that these loses and his obsession with a ballroom would make the GOP turn on him and turf him out but it seems they are determined to go down with him.
I am also a bit shocked he’s not screaming voter fraud like last time – I guess even he knows his ass is cooked.
One thing we can all do to make him lose his rich corporations support:
Stop buying from those who funded him.
They funded him because they thought he would make him profit. The less profit for them, the less they will support him.
Tuesday was so stressful for me. At first I was so worried the blue tsunami wouldn’t even be a wave. I still have PTSD from 2024. Then when we were doing so well I was so worried how Trump would react. A narcissistic collapse on a person that has the dark triad traits can be terrifying and I worried what he would do.
Then my husband pointed out that Trump didn’t lose so he can blame everyone else and his ego can stand. He is self soothing with his ballroom and is even being somewhat complimentary to the democrats. One thing Trump doesn’t like is losers and his republican friends are now losers. Just look how he fanboyed after Mamdani, NY loved him and Trump knows that’s a big deal.
I think it’s possible he would turn his back on his billionaire friends to give the appearance he is a winner. But it’s also possible he after some time he snaps out of this and goes back to trying to destroy democracy, but he will lose. There is a risk any vetoes could be overturned and that would really make him a loser. I don’t think he will risk that.
Although if Jack Smith is able to go after him, he will be that caged animal. Maybe they could get Medicare for all before they go after him.
Meh…he was probably just taking a dump in his diaper.
This is misinformation – he was so triggered that they had to sedate him because he started raging so that is why he became silent and was “paralyzed”. I hope they don’t waste time trying to impeach him – better off going after all the cabinet members and fixing all his messes. Better to have him watch them take away all his power and he is not long for this work anyway.
The epistemic crisis guy posted about the sedation, I wonder who his source is because he’s known about a couple of not public incidents where the president is refusing treatment, etc.
I’m also really wondering the source on him going silent in the dark residence. Wiles and Harp are mentioned as present, reading that Wiles was telling everyone they were winning until the past month makes me think she’s crazier/more delusional than I thought. Harp is fully insane, she would never. Maybe someone in the secret service.
Sedation was my first thought as well. He’s been out at events quite a bit lately and it seems like those uppers can only last so long until he needs a rest which is well timed with this defeat. Hopefully they keep him that way for the next two years.
“Another insider recalled watching the president’s longtime comms strategist Jason Miller panicking and doused in sweat as newscasters announced one embarrassing Republican electoral defeat after another.”
This brings me joy.
I want to know how Stephen Miller reacted. I hope he was freaking out, too.
“A White House insider told the Daily Mail that aides ordered platters of appetizers from the Cheesecake Factory in the “delusional” expectation that there’d be something to celebrate as the results of the nationwide contests poured in on Tuesday night. But by 10 p.m. the uneaten trays of sliders and eggrolls were turning stale in the East Room as even top administration officials fled the building to drown their sorrows in the bars of D.C.”
Cheesecake Factory keeps catching strays I’m screaming :’D
(I actually like Cheesecake Factory, but the Republicans are so ridiculous. I swear Obama lives rent free in their minds)
As a Black 58 year old politically motivated Democratic voter…what happened on Tuesday is the DREAM I ALWAYS DREAMED OF…not who sits in POTUS…but Dems SWEEPING THE COUNTRY AT EVERY LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT…BECAUSE THAT IS HOW WE MAKE REAL SYSTEMIC CHANGE💙🇺🇸💙 and the fact that I lived to see Black Women who have been the ONLY Democratic Base for YEARS…SHOW UP & SHOW OUT & GET CHOOSE IN SO MANY CITIES …it’s ALMOST TOO MUCH😭 And Women grabbing those governorships and even Dems who LOST ONLY LOST BY LESS THAN 2%! Trump will no longer be able to decimate the Courts…Musk will no longer be able to 😱 people like me who are on Social Security…Zelensky who helped our elections IMMENSELY by blowing up Russian data centers will get his help…Data Centers running havoc on minority & poor communties will be reigned in…No government closures over the budget…policies will be passed to negate that horrific Big Beautiful Bill…
Dems have DONE this before…from 2016 to 2022 when Dems had the House we passed the MOST LIFE CHANGING POLICIES and Dems being in power during the start of the pandemic is the ONLY reasons millions MORE weren’t destroyed & we got the financial help we needed…remember the $600 EXTRA every two weeks if you were unemployed or on furlough & all of the labs & FREE testing centers that were set up?
2028 will be SWEET AF💙🇺🇸💙
Saturday is my 59th Birthday 🎂 and this is my ALL TIME BEST PRESENT!
Yes it is 100% because of black women organizing in every freakin state from GA to TX to SC. Now in Mississippi we are learning of the massive amount of organizing from black churches with Warnock and others who were able to get Scott Colum to the point where he might actually pull it off.
Protests are nice but this is the REAL work: the quiet organizing, the reliable voting in EVERY election, the GOTV and outreach measures.
Black women have saved Democracy and our country once again. Not sure we deserve it but man am I grateful. ♥
PS-Happy early Birthday!
* COLOM-
Early birthday greetings! 🎂💐🍾🥂🎈 @Lala11_7 I agree wholeheartedly. Black women have ALWAYS been on the frontlines of social justice and racial equality. We keep hope alive, we organize and motivate. We are the backbone of the party. When the vast majority of white women and a shocking number of Black men voted for the Orange Menace in 2024, we doggedly refused. We are the only block of voters who overwhelmingly opposed President Epstein.
Let’s not leave out the Affordable Care Act that has so many good features, most people aren’t even aware of them, like geographic data comparisons.
They literally appeased this clown by talking about the ballroom yesterday. It’s so sickening to watch.
I can imagine Natalie Harp saying so sweetly “Look Donald, look at the drawings of the beautiful Trump ballroom, then we’ll have ice cream.”
I am so happy this is happening for him!
The fact that the win was too big to rig, and that we recaptured the Governor and state houses in major swing states means 2028 Election is safe is a BIG win for democracy. The first thing we need to do in Congress is restoring health and Medicaid and Medicare cuts. Then we should go after all the cabinet officials and their friends and family that have either skirted Govt contracting processes with LLCs run out of their basement or committed outright fraud by delivering shoddy or non existent work – in an attempt to retrieve tax payer money. Impeachment is satisfying but likely won’t get Trump so going after other officials first makes sense but balanced with plenty of things that help families make ends meet. But for right now, enjoying the blue scrolling a lot!
Yes. Restore Medicare and Medicaid cuts. Absolutely. Price increases on the Parts and Parts are coming in now and it’s ugly.
The most surprising part to me about this whole story is that he did not just sleep right through this.
Very Hitler-in-the-bunker behaviour.
I’m surprised he’s not so apoplectic that he’ll have a heart attack or stroke. Maybe that’s why they sedated him. You’d think the stress would kill him!