NY Post turns on ‘Toxic Trump’ after DeSantis gets plaudits from paper and Fox after midterms

Both key facets of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire – Fox News on TV and the New York Post in print – appear to have pivoted away from former President Donald Trump and to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the GOP’s next great hope.

The Post promoted their upcoming Thursday front page as ‘TRUMPTY DUMPTY’ with a fairly scathing criticism of the 45th president. 

Their caption reads: ‘Don (who couldn’t build a great wall) had a great fall – can all the GOP’s men put the party back together again?’

The headlines come in as the fallout continues from what many are seeing as the Republican Party’s failure to take turn historic unpopularity for President Joe Biden and the Democrats into a ‘Red Wave.’

As of Thursday morning, the Senate remains in the balance, with the possibility of yet another runoff in Georgia deciding which party will control the upper chamber, assuming the heavily Trump-backed Blake Masters and Adam Laxalt can pull off upsets in Arizona and Nevada.

The Post promoted their upcoming Thursday front page as ‘TRUMPTY DUMPTY’ with a fairly scathing criticism of the 45th president

This comes after the Post piled on the plaudits for Governor DeSantis’ dominant, 20-point victory on Tuesday in Wednesday’s cover, declaring him ‘DeFUTURE’ of the GOP

TRUMP-BACKED… AND ELECTED: JD Vance, the bestselling author of ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ defeated 10-term congressman Tim Ryan in Ohio. Ted Budd won in North Carolina (right) 

Even with Republicans still favored to take the House of Representatives, the party still cannot claim a majority and will likely have a slim margin regardless.

This comes after the Post piled on the plaudits for Governor DeSantis’ dominant, 20-point victory on Tuesday in Wednesday’s cover, declaring him ‘DeFUTURE’ of the GOP.

The Post called the Florida executive the GOP’s ‘young star’ who romped to victory in the Sunshine State.

Columnist John Podhoretz further slapped down the ex-president in an op-ed declaring that Turmp performed ‘sabotage’ on the party. 

Podhoretz wrote: ‘Hey, Lyin’ Ted and Sleepy Joe: Meet Toxic Trump. You know, if the former president had any self-knowledge or even the slightest ability to be self-deprecating, he might consider giving himself this alliterative nickname.’

The long-time conservative writer counted up various Trump endorsements – including Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, Blake Masters in Arizona and Don Bolduc in New Hampshire – who either already have lost or appear on their way to losing.

Podhoretz concluded: ‘The surest way to lose in these midterms was to be a politician endorsed by Trump.’

Fox News was largely quiet about the former president Tuesday night into Wednesday, but they made sure to heap praise on DeSantis.

Tucker Carlson, one of Trump’s biggest backers on cable news, said that DeSantis ‘absolutely killed it.’ 

He added that voters in Florida were not just rejecting Democrat opponent Charlie Crist but ‘affirming’ the policies of DeSantis.

Carlson added: ‘What happened in Florida was a big deal. It was out of the ordinary, unexpected, and profound.’ 

Host Laura Ingraham called DeSantis’ – and Senator Marco Rubio’s – performances a ‘tour de force’ and declared Florida a model for the rest of the country. 

Fox’s Sean Hannity also praised what happened in Florida during an interview with Rubio, after rumors Trump was angry with the longest-tenured Fox host while watching the results Tuesday night, according to ABC News. 

Republican strategists were licking their wounds on Wednesday as the post-mortem following the midterms began – with senior figures in the party branding Donald Trump a ‘disaster’ and accusing him of ‘sabotaging’ their expected cruise to victory.

Many Democrats went into election night dreading how bad their losses could be and pondering how to explain them.

By Wednesday, they had quickly shifted into day-after hoping that they could actually maintain a voting majority in the Senate, celebrating victories in key governors’ races, and aware that control of the House was still not declared.

Trump has promised to make a ‘major announcement’ on November 15, but many are trying to convince him to reconsider the expected launch of his 2024 campaign, given how well his rival Ron DeSantis, re-elected as governor of Florida, performed.

‘Between being Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis tonight, you want to be Ron DeSantis,’ said Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s former chief of staff.

‘DeSantis wins tonight and Trump is not doing very well.’

Donald Trump on Wednesday was forced to deny reports he erupted in anger at the midterms results, which saw many of his handpicked candidates fail. He insisted he was delighted with the showing

Republicans were left grumbling about ‘candidate quality,’ with many pointing the finger at the 76-year-old former president.

‘Never forget. Trump picked sure losers in winnable races,’ said Gregg Nunziata, a former member of Marco Rubio’s team in the Senate.

‘He picked weak candidates in otherwise slam dunk races requiring the party to spend tons of money we’d rather spend elsewhere.

‘Of, and speaking of money, he hoovered up tens of millions and barely spent a dime to help Rs.’

Scott Reed, a veteran Republican strategist, said: ‘I mean, we had a historic opportunity and Trump’s recruitment of unelectable candidates blew it for us. 

‘Trump’s now lost three elections in a row for the Republican Party and it’s time to snap out of this foolishness.’ 

Fox News’ White House correspondent, Jacqui Heinrich, tweeted: ‘GOP source tells me ‘if it wasn’t clear before it should be now. We have a Trump problem’.’

Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor and Trump ally, accused the former president of selfishly pursuing his own interests.

Early analysis also shows that in counties with Trump-backed candidates, the Republican vote share increased by just 1.3 percent compared with 6.9 percent in counties where he wasn’t involved in the race

As of Wednesday morning, eight Trump backed candidates had lost including one senate race, four house candidates and three governors

He blamed Trump for elevating deeply flawed candidates, who won their primaries but struggled in the general election.

‘The only animating factor (for him) in determining an endorsement is, ‘Do you believe the 2020 election was stolen or don’t you?’ Christie said. 

‘It’s not, ‘Can you raise money?’ 

‘It’s not, ‘Do you have an articulatable vision for the future of your state or your district?’ 

‘It’s not evidence of past success in communicating to voters. 

‘It is a completely self-centered determination.’

Trump on Wednesday was forced to deny reports that he had erupted in anger at all those around him – including his wife Melania – over the losses.

Many of his high-profile endorsements lost their races – among them Dr Mehmet Oz, the television doctor running for the Senate in Pennsylvania, whose candidacy Melania Trump reportedly backed.

Trump is insistent that he triumphed in the midterms, despite the promised red wave failing to materialize and even though many of his chosen candidates lost, claiming instead that he secured a personal ‘big victory’. 

Brutal post-mortem: Lt. Governor of Georgia, Geoff Duncan (L) said Trump was ‘in the rearview mirror’ while former Gov. of New Jersey, Chris Christie, said he is to blame for ‘poor candidate quality’ 

In a Truth social post on Wednesday afternoon, Trump ignored the embarrassing defeats of Don Bolduc and Mehmet Oz and dismissed the growing disdain for him in the GOP, instead declaring the night a ‘very big victory’. 

‘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 also took a stab at his GOP rival Ron DeSantis, saying he cumulatively amassed more votes in the Sunshine State than DeSantis did when he ran in 2020. 

‘Now that the Election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldn’t it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million? Just asking.’ 

DeSantis defeated his opponent by 1.5million votes – 19 percent – whereas Trump beat Biden by 300,000 – three percent. 

DeSantis also flipped the key county of Miami Dade, a Democrat stronghold which Trump lost to Biden in 2020, when four million more voters turned out in Florida to decide who would become President than they did for yesterday’s Gubernatorial race. 

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 In a Truth social post on Wednesday afternoon, Trump ignored the embarrassing defeats of Don Bolduc and Mehmet Oz and dismissed the growing disdain for him in the GOP. He also took a stab at Ron DeSantis – who won by nearly 20 percent last night – and said he received more votes in the 2020 Presidential election 

Trump, pictured yesterday at Mar-a-Lago, endorsed 330 people in the midterms but many of the major stage players were defeated 

The man of the moment: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis swept to victory, flipping the Democrat stronghold of Miami Dade county. Now, he is being heralded as the future of the GOP and is emerging as a favorite for a 2024 run 

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Many of Trump’s wins were predicted, unlike races in swing states which were widely anticipated to be Republican landslides but have instead turned into close calls, run-offs of all-out bloodbaths. 

While results in key swing states like Arizona and Georgia are still pending, many are calling Trump the biggest loser of the night with Republicans swearing him off, and throwing their weight behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for a 2024 run.  

For Trump, the midterms were supposed to be an amuse-bouche before another White House campaign. 

But some of his most prolific candidates crashed and burned overnight. 

Oz, a TV star turned politician, suffered one of the most embarrassing defeats of the night, losing to John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. 

According to The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, who recently released a scathing biography about Trump, the former president is particularly ‘furious’ that Oz lost –  and is ‘blaming everyone… including his wife’ for advising him to support him in April.