Trump blames Democrats’ midterm victories for stock market plunge

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a "Steel Across America" event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on September 08, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Finn Gomez / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

US President Donald Trump attributed Thursday’s stock market freefall to the electoral victory of his rival Democratic Party in midterm elections earlier this week.

“The Stock Market crashed today because the Dumocrats had a big Tuesday — So sad to see, you only have yourselves to blame!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform after US markets closed for the day.

Analysts attributed Thursday’s stock selloff to fears of Democrats threatening the AI data center investment boom, with the tech-focused Nasdaq suffering its worst session percentage-wise since April 2025.

Data centers have faced broad opposition from US voters regardless of political affiliation, and many midterm winners have pledged to put the brakes on such projects.

Democrats flipped seats that had long been held by Republicans, scoring breakthroughs in South Carolina, North Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Texas and Maine.

In Maine, former logger Troy Jackson defeated longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins, the party’s seventh Senate seat captured from Republicans.

In Kansas, Methodist minister Adam Hamilton became the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the reliably conservative state since 1932. Iowa had not elected a Democratic senator since 2008.

Talarico, the Texas Democrat, declared he had defeated “Goliath” in winning a Senate seat, while Gina Hinojosa unseated the state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, ending decades of Republican rule.

Democrats also protected key Senate seats of their own, including Jon Ossoff in Georgia and an open seat in New Hampshire.

The scale of the victory grew further when Abdul El-Sayed defeated former Republican lawmaker Mike Rogers in Michigan, making him the first Muslim elected to the upper chamber of Congress.

The party’s House victory saw gains across Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin and New Jersey, including districts Trump had carried comfortably in 2024.

In one closely watched bellwether, Democrat J.D. Ford ousted Republican congresswoman Victoria Spartz in Indiana, capturing a district Trump won by 17 points two years earlier.

Democrats also won Georgia’s governorship, electing former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as the first Black woman governor in US history.

Republicans had some consolation in Florida, where Trump-backed Byron Donalds became the state’s first Black governor and Ashley Moody retained a Senate seat — but only after seeing off surprisingly strong Democratic challenges.