The midterm elections should have paved the way for him to make a bid for the presidency in 2024. Instead, it was a disappointing election night for Donald Trump, who sees his main Republican rival gain support from the election results. AFP.

The former president, who personally campaigned for the election, dreamed of a landslide victory ahead of the promised “big announcement” next week, which is believed to herald a presidential bid.

But the predicted “red wave” did not cover the entire country, although the Republicans have a good chance of gaining a majority in the House of Representatives. But control of the Senate remains in question.

“While in some ways yesterday’s election was a little disappointing, from my perspective it was a great victory,” Donald Trump said Wednesday on the Truth social network.

However, the loudest victory of the evening on the conservative side remains the victory of Ron DeSantis, triumphantly re-elected governor of Florida.

He is the main and strongest opponent of Donald Trump in the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

His landslide victory over Democrat Charlie Crist solidifies his status as a rising star, and already an editorial published Wednesday morning on Fox New crowned DeSantis as the new “leader of the GOP.”

Despite the lack of full final results, the political landscape on Wednesday morning was clearly not as expected.

Although midterm elections are usually favorable to the opposition, “it shouldn’t have been this difficult for Republicans,” John Rogowski, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, told AFP. He added that “many of the candidates” Biden supported were “very strong.”

“Many of the candidates” supported by Donald Trump “did not show results and deprived the party of victory,” noted John Rogowski. “At the same time, the other Republican candidates he publicly battled won their seats easily.”

Example: Brian Kemp, who openly opposes Donald Trump, retained his position as governor of Georgia. The former president has consistently criticized Kemp’s role in the 2020 vote certification and sought to oust him by endorsing another candidate in the primary.