Donald Trump Gripes About 2026 Midterms, Saying, ‘When You Think of It, We Shouldn’t Even Have an Election’

Faced with the looming threat that Republicans might lose control of Congress, President Donald Trump suggested America should call off its upcoming midterm elections.

The president, 79, sat down with Reuters for an interview on Wednesday, Jan. 14, during which he addressed new polling numbers. The Lincoln Project reported this week that 18 House races have recently shifted in the Democrats’ favor, and the Senate is thought to be up for grabs as well.

It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” Trump said.

He even went so far as to boast that the first year of his second term had gone so well that “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to walk back the president’s comments about midterms while speaking with the press on Thursday, Jan. 15. Leavitt, 28, said she was in the room during Trump’s interview with Reuters, which was not recorded, and insisted he was “joking” about doing away with elections.

“He was saying, ‘We’re doing such a great job, we’re doing everything the American people thought. Maybe we should just keep rolling,’ ” she claimed. “He was speaking facetiously.”

Trump insisted the U.S. economy was the strongest “in history” while dismissing a question about the public’s concern over high prices.

“A lot of times, you can’t convince a voter,” he said. “You have to just do what’s right. And then a lot of the things I did were not really politically popular. They turned out to be when it worked out so well.”

Trump’s “facetious” dismissal of electoral due process falls in line with comments he’s made in the past; in particular, repeated references to a third term in office.

Despite the fact that the Constitution explicitly forbids it, Trump has floated the idea of running for a third term multiple times, even going so far as to add “TRUMP 2028” hats to the White House gift shop only a few months into his second term.

In a March 2025 interview with NBC News, he insisted he was “not joking” about considering another term, despite the fact that he will be the oldest president in U.S. history by the time his second term ends in January 2029.

“A lot of people want me to do it,” he said at the time. “I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”

Unsurprisingly, some of Trump’s most ardent supporters have also spoken about him serving a third term in the White House — chief among them, Steve Bannon.

Trump’s former chief strategist — who has remained loyal to the MAGA movement despite the fact that Trump fired him from his White House role less than a year into his first term — spoke about the unconstitutional possibility in an October 2025 interview with The Economist.

“He’s gonna get a third term,” Bannon said. “Trump is gonna be president in ’28, and people just sort of [need to] get accommodated with that.”

When asked about the 22nd Amendment, which prevents candidates from being “elected to the office of the President more than twice,” Bannon said there’s a plan in place to work around it. Supporters have floated the idea of amending the Constitution — which would require an unlikely two-thirds vote by Congress or the U.S. states — or having JD Vance run at the top of the ticket and then resign, so Trump can take power once again.

“There’s many different alternatives. At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is, but there’s a plan,” Bannon said. “We need him for at least one more term, right? And he’ll get that in ’28.”

He concluded, “We had longer odds in ’16 and longer odds in ’24 than we’ve got in ’28. We have to finish what we started.”