Wall Street Journal editorial board: Trump ‘main architect’ of GOP midterm ‘rout’
The Wall Street Journal's editorial board has never been shy about scolding Republicans it sees as straying from conservative principles, but pinning the label of main architect on Trump is still a striking turn. This is the same board that spent years defending much of his agenda on taxes and deregulation. When they frame Tuesday as more than a normal midterm defeat, it carries real weight with conservative readers who might otherwise reach for historical excuses.
Democrats appear set to take both chambers, and that breadth suggests something beyond the usual second-term slump. I'd want to know how much of this was Trump specifically versus the wider environment. Inflation and border politics were never going to help the party in power, and midterms after a president's re-election are brutal across the board. But the board's point seems to be that this wasn't just the cycle doing its work, and that the president's style made things worse.
I think Republicans are facing a genuine reckoning about whether Trump helps or hurts the coalition, and this editorial is another sign that establishment conservatives have made up their minds. Whether the broader electorate agrees is the open question, and that's the one that will shape 2026.