Trump takes aim at Republicans but says Democrats did a 'good job'

US President Donald Trump has taken aim at Republicans and conceded that the Democrats have done "a good job" in the US midterm elections, as they take control of both the Senate and House of Representatives in a momentous win.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump derided Greg Abbott, who lost the Texas governor race to Democrat Gina Hinojosa, saying Abbott wouldn't have lost if he "hadn't become a RINO in the last six months", using the acronym for "Republican in Name Only".

The president said that if he had been on the ballot, the Republicans "would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!"

But he also said that he accepted the results of the election, telling The New York Times that he was "absolutely willing to accept" them.

While speaking to the paper, Trump added that he would "look forward to working with" the Democrats.

"We'll probably work something out," he said.

In a separate interview with Fox News, he said he was "a little surprised" at the outcome. "I thought they'd do better," he said, referring to the Republican candidates.

"The Democrats did a good job. they fought hard," he told the network.

But he added that the Democrats would send "insane" legislation to his desk that he would veto.

"After a couple of months of vetoes, they'll call and they'll say, 'how do we get this stuff done?' And we'll work together," he said, adding: "I have the power of veto."

On Truth Social, he posted a photo of a red cap - the kind usually emblazoned with his Make America Great Again slogan - emblazoned with the word "VETO", in an apparent reference to his ability to block legislation in Congress.

Trump acknowledged that the Iran conflict had contributed to the defeat.

Asked by a Fox News anchor what the takeaways of the results were, he replied: "I think a part of it was Iran."

But he added that it was the war's impacts on US fuel prices that turned voters away.

"People agree with what I'm doing on Iran but they really probably weren't willing to do the short term consequences of paying more for gasoline - I understand that."

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As Republican losses started mounting, Trump reacted by saying on Truth Social that he was going to "become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost".

He first attacked Abbott, whose loss in Texas marks the first time a Democrat has won the governor seat in more than 30 years.

"If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn't become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn't have lost," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "He went back to his original formula, and it wasn't pretty!"

The term "RINO" is used by party members against those deemed disloyal to the Republican Party.

Trump distanced himself from some other Republican candidates who contested the election, telling CBS News: "In some cases they [voters] didn't like the candidates, and in some cases those candidates were not my friend".

"We would have won easily if I was on the ballot. But I wasn't," he added.

He also lambasted Fox News over the evening in several Truth Social posts. He criticised the outlet for "spending too much time" covering the Democrats and said the outlet's poor ratings were "way down, not because of me, but because they are AGAINST me!"

And he was unhappy that Fox News had interviewed former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, whom he called "the Worst Mayor" in the history of New York city".

"He left the City in disgrace and the damage he caused was incalculable," Trump wrote.

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