Republican strategists call Don a 'huge loser' for putting his 'selfish priorities' over the party

Republican finger-pointing has been in full force since their disappointing midterms election night where an expected red wave hit a blue wall.

In states where abortion and election deniers were on the ballot, the Democrats fared far better than their counterparts.

What has become apparent is that the election was not just a referendum on President Biden - who has dismal approval ratings and has been blamed for the deteriorating economic situation - but also the Former President Donald Trump.  

Republican operators are fighting mad at 'huge loser' Trump after the the elections failed to live up to its expectations with the balance of power in Congress still hanging in the balance as of Thursday morning.

The GOP were expected to take both the Senate and House, but now it looks likely the outcome won't be known until a Georgia runoff election in December.

Analysts are saying Trump fared poorly on Tuesday, and the candidates he backed could have cost the Republicans. Trump has remained steadfast and has said most of the candidates he endorsed have won.

 'Trump came out as a huge loser yesterday. His endorsed House and Senate candidates consistently underperformed all over the country and he may have cost us the House and the Senate for the third straight election cycle,' GOP strategist Jim Dornan told DailyMail.com. 

He noted that Trump had cost the party 'safe' seats in Washington and Michigan by promoting weak primary candidates as political payback against those who voted for impeachment, who include outgoing Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., and Jamie Heurrera Beutler, R-Wash. 

Republican operators are fighting mad at 'huge loser' Donald Trump after the GOP failed to live up to its expectations in the midterm elections.

'The MyPillow-ization of the GOP by Trump brought bad candidates up and down the ballot, with missed opportunities at every turn,' he said, referring to MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, who was front and center to Trump's election fraud claims

'If he is smart, he will postpone any 2024 announcement next week. Rank and file Republicans are growing weary of his act,' Dornan said, predicting GOP donors would rally around Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who sailed into re-election on Wednesday days after Trump dubbed him 'Ron DeSanctimonious.' 

Republicans rode high into Election Day after polling consistently showed Americans cared first and foremost about the economy and consistently showed they trusted Republicans to get finances back on track. But the red wave they predicted is looking more like a narrow lead in the House and a potential loss to Democrats in the Senate. 

Trump played down his part in the losses on Truth Social, but behind closed doors, he allegedly was 'screaming' and blaming others including his wife who talked him into endorsing unelectable candidates. 

On Wednesday Trump acknowledged Tuesday's results were 'disappointing' for Republicans but counted them as a win for himself. 

'While in certain ways yesterday's election was somewhat disappointing, from my personal standpoint it was a very big victory - 219 WINS and 16 Losses in the General - Who has ever done better than that?,' he said, ignoring the fact that many of those wins were in GOP strongholds. 

Out of the 39 actually competitive races where Trump endorsed candidates, his choices so far have won 12 races, lost 11 and 16 have yet to be decided, as of Wednesday afternoon. 

Nowhere is Trump's fingerprint more apparent than the loss of the Pennsylvania Senate race. Pennsylvanians had long complained that Dr. Mehmet did not live in Pennsylvania and did not represent their values, but Trump pressed forward, launching the celebrity heart surgeon to the front of the primary. The race has been called for Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman as Oz trails him by three points. 

In New Hampshire, Trump-backed Don Bolduc lost to incumbent Dem. Maggie Hassan, and Trump gloated on Truth Social that Bolduc lost because he wavered on election fraud.  But in Wisconsin and Ohio, Republican incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson and newcomer J.D. Vance, both of whom had Trump's backing, were able to fight off Democratic challengers, as was North Carolina Rep. Ted Budd in his Senate race. 

In Arizona, Trump-endorsed Blake Masters is trailing Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly, though not enough votes have been counted to call the race. 

In Georgia, Trump-backed Herschel Walker will go into a runoff with Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock. But both GOP Gov. Brian Kemp and Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger handily won their races, despite Trump's attacks after they refused to toe the line on election fraud. Their outperformance of Walker signals a large number of ticket splitters could not bring themselves to vote for the ex-NFL star. 

'Mitch McConnell was right all along, the quality of the candidates matters,' conservative strategist Doug Heye told DailyMail.com, referring to the GOP Senate Leader's August comments that made waves. 

'The MyPillow-ization of the GOP by Trump brought bad candidates up and down the ballot, with missed opportunities at every turn,' he said, referring to MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, who was front and center to Trump's election fraud claims.

'Trump and his acolytes have now potentially twice cost a Senate majority,' Heye added. In 2020, Trump's chronic insistence that the Georgia runoff for Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler would be 'rigged' discouraged voters from turning out to the polls. 

Another GOP strategist played down the panic over Tuesday's results, noting that inaccurate polling 'raised expectations' too much. 

'The GOP won back the House. That stops Biden’s ability to pass extreme legislation. That’s a big win,' Ohio-based Republican consultant Mark Weaver said. 

'Those who are saying it was a bad cycle only do so because polling was inaccurate in some races and raised expectations,' he added. 'The GOP continues to grow its vote among Black voters and Hispanic voters. And DeSantis is now the man to watch.' 

Strategist Ken Spain said that Trump casts a 'very long shadow' over yesterday's results.

'Republicans failed to make the midterms a referendum on the president and party in power,' he told DailyMail.com. 

'The party finds itself at a major inflection point. Whether Republican voters are willing to factor electability into their decision making process in 2024 is a process that will take months to play out.'  

Even Republicans in Congress expressed their disappointment as results started to roll in Tuesday night. 

'Definitely not a Republican wave, that's for darn sure,' GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told NBC News just hours after the GOP started the night strong with Ron DeSantis' landslide victory in the Florida Governor race.

And Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said: 'It hasn't been as big of a wave as I'd hoped it would be. We've had some close races go the other way so far.'

Trump insiders said the former president was gunning to announce his run before the midterm elections. Many urged him to wait, in part to avoid turning the election into a referendum on him and partly to avoid blame should Republicans underperform on Tuesday. 

Strategists predicted donors would rally around Gov. Ron DeSantis

Instead, on election eve, Trump revealed he would have a 'major announcement' on Nov. 15, all but certainly referring to a 2024 run. 

Trump's former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday he should hold off on the Nov. 15 announcement until after the Georgia runoffs

'I know there's a temptation to starting talking about 2024 — no, no, no, no, no,' McEnany said on Wednesday's edition of 'Outnumbered.'

Pressed by host Harris Faulkner on if that meant Trump delaying his reelection announcement, she said: 'I think he needs to put it on pause, absolutely.'

McEnany refused to say whether Trump should appear with Walker in the Peach State in the run-up to December 6.  

Asked by Faulkner whether the former president should go to Georgia, McEnany replied: 'I think we've got to make strategic calculations. Gov. DeSantis, I think he should be welcome to the state, given what happened last night. You've got to look at the realities on the ground.' 

Trump meanwhile played down reports he was 'livid' about the results. 

'There is a fake news narrative that I was furious — it is just the opposite,' Trump told Fox News.  

'Trump is indeed furious this morning, particularly about Mehmet Oz, and is blaming everyone who advised him to back Oz -- including his wife, describing it as not her best decision, according to people close to him,' the well-sourced New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted. 

She continued: 'There are people pushing Trump to reschedule his announcement next week, and several Rs have texted asking whether he will, but it’s risky and would be acknowledging he’s wounded by yesterday, something that some of his advisers insist is not the case.' 

CNN's Jim Acosta cites an unnamed adviser who said the president is 'livid' and 'screaming at everybody' today after last night. 

He also took credit for Ron DeSantis 2018 win, saying he 'was not going to be a factor' in the race before his endorsement. 

'He was not going to be able to even be a factor in the race. And as soon within moments, the race was over. 

'I got him the nomination. He didn’t get it. I got it, because the minute I made that endorsement, he got it.' 

Duncan, the Lt. Gov of Georgia, said Republicans would have had better success with a different pool of candidates.  

'It turns out Mitch McConnell knew what he was talking about with candidate quality,' he said, referring to McConnell's prediction in August that poor quality would impact the result. 

'If they would have just woke up 12 months ago, and stopped taking his lead and took the lead of what real Republican, real conservative policies meant and mattered, we'd be in a different place.

'I wouldn't want to be the one delivering him the news last night or this morning as to what the results of the candidates they supported and poured money into were, it's time to turn the page.

'I'm ready to move on. Who knows. Donald Trump is moving from a movement to a distraction for the Republican Party now.