Donald Trump kept it up right to the bitter end.

At rallies in states usually deeply Republican red, where the president previously rarely needed to appear, he vowed they’d win “up and down the line”.

In posts on social media, he denounced “fake polls” and insisted Republicans could still emerge as victors if they turned out in big numbers. 

In an Islamophobic attack on a Democratic candidate that had no precedent, he revealed there was no depth to which he would not sink to try and stave off defeat.

None of it mattered. On Tuesday, America delivered a resounding message that they were done with the president.

History suggests the party not occupying the White House tends to lose one or both chambers of Congress. Yet the level of the public disapproval of Trump meant Republicans across the country were on the back foot.

By failing to address the rising cost of living – one of his main campaign promises from 2024 – the president had little good news to share with voters.

His decision to go to war with Iran, having vowed not to, helped push up the cost of petrol, diesel, food and fertiliser. His tariffs hit many of the battlegrounds.

All the while Trump appeared focused on things that mattered only to him, including the construction of a ballroom, gold fittings in White House bathrooms, and a plan for a series of new monuments in Washington DC. He appeared like a king out of touch.

Indeed, he chose to make his final appearance not in one of the battlegrounds, but in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool where he bragged about the expensive overhaul it has undergone. He did not mention any of the many problems the work faced, but later blasted the media that questioned his pick of a final venue.

“We have a lot of great things planned for Washington, and I could get into the nation, but for that, you don’t have enough time,” Trump said on Monday.

It’s hard to know if Trump truly believes the polls were false, given the bubble any president lives in. 

Joe Biden was also accused of being out of touch when, in 2022, he lectured the nation about the “facts” about the economy as inflation hovered at nine per cent.

At times it seems Trump does not care. He bragged that oil companies were making record profits, even as voters were paying more for those company’s products. 

In Texas, where he promised to distribute $5,000 to every American if Republicans won the midterms, the man who reported having made $2.2bn in outside income during his first year back in the White House, talked about how far that $5,000 would go at his luxury Mar-a-Lago resort.

“The problem is for $5,000, the most you’ll be able to buy is a hamburger and maybe a small dessert,” he said, in what he hoped was a joke.

While every midterm election is a referendum on how well the country thinks a president is doing, Trump went out of his way to put his fingerprints on the contest, despite his approval being in the low 30s.

The president harmed his party by his reckless refusal to talk about how he’d handle the soaring cost of living. He also did damage to its prospects by insisting on selecting candidates, loyal and fawning to him, who had less chance of beating their Democratic opponent than someone less extreme.

Texas was a case study. The president won it by 14 points in 2024, but has been forced to make numerous trips there to try and boost the chances of his pick, the corruption-scarred Ken Paxton. 

Paxton lost to Democrat James Talarico – despite Elon Musk investing $200m to support the GOP in the state.

Had Republicans gone with the conservative but mainstream John Cornyn, Tallarico’s chances would have been sharply reduced. Instead, Trump handed Democrats their best opportunity to win in the state where they last held statewide office in 1994.

Does Trump care about any of this? 

Outwardly he doesn’t seem to. Indeed, it’s often been said if Democrats had drawn up a plan for Trump to follow to better their chances, it’s hard to see it being much different from the one he adopted.

One would argue his insistence to “pretend that I am on the ballot” was intended to ensure his base turned out and voted, given turnout at midterms is often much less. Even Trump’s detractors would admit that at his best he can be a powerful, tub-chumping speaker.

More likely, it’s the case Trump loved holding these huge rallies and hearing people roar his name.

Trump’s last two years in office are not going to be much fun for him. 

Once Democrats get their hands on some of the levers of power, they will be able to at least try to rein him in a little. 

Trump will retain huge power and will be able to issue executive orders as he does now. But as Trump found out when Nancy Pelosi returned as Democratic Speaker after the 2018 midterms, it’s a very different world when the opposition has traction.

Presidents often spend their last two years on foreign affairs and many have voiced fears that Trump could launch new attacks on Iran, either out of frustration or to try and change the losing narrative.

One thing we know, Trump is not a good loser. That ought to worry everyone.