Trump Prepares for GOP Loss of House but Perhaps Gains in the Senate

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump braced on Tuesday night for the bad news that he could face a Democratic-controlled House even as his mood was brightened by Republican victories that could expand his party’s majority in the Senate.

Trump appeared to become happier, aides said, during a White House election night party as Democratic hopes of an overwhelming “blue wave” receded across the United States.

The day began with White House aides expecting a brutal evening. But as the results began coming in, it became clear that Republicans were likely to hold the Senate, and Trump and his aides relaxed.

The president strode into his party in the White House residence around 8:30 p.m., according to people present at the party, where television sets were placed around the room so people could monitor results.

Trump moved around a room filled with family and friends, among them Richard LeFrak, Howard Lorber, Thomas Barrack Jr., Ike Perlmutter, Steve Witkoff, Sheldon G. Adelson, and Cabinet secretaries like Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross.

Trump, who had no public events on his schedule throughout the day Tuesday, had been focused on whether his dark closing message about the dangers of illegal immigration could once again help him defy the polls — this time showing that Democrats were likely to win control of the House and many governorships.

For days, Trump’s advisers had been warning him that the losses could be deep, even as they were saying that the Senate should be a bright spot. Advisers acknowledged that Trump has a problem with female voters as he engineers his own re-election effort.

Trump knew his messaging may have gone too far, people close to him said, a sentiment reflected in his interview with an ABC affiliate owned by the Trump-friendly Sinclair Broadcasting.

“I would like to have a much softer tone. I feel, to a certain extent, I have no choice. But maybe I do,” Trump told the affiliate when asked about his regrets from his first two years in office. “And maybe I could’ve been softer from that standpoint.”

For days, Trump had begun to change his public messaging to allow for a House loss by claiming that he himself was personally focused on the Senate contests in his campaign appearances.

Even with the Senate likely to hold, the White House was preparing for a Democratic House that would leave Trump’s administration vulnerable to a series of investigations with subpoena power. Trump told people that he assumed the House was going to change hands, and that it might mean more work, but that he was ready for it.

The loss of the House could lead to changes inside the West Wing, according to a number of people, the most significant being that the chief of staff, John Kelly, might leave, according to four people close to the president.

There were already other departures expected, such as Bill Stepien, the political director, and Justin Clark, the head of the office of public liaison, both of whom are expected to work on the re-election effort. Stepien’s deputy, Brian Jack, is likely to fill the political director job.

The president had returned to the White House at 2:43 a.m. Tuesday after the last of 11 fiery campaign rallies over six days. Several people in contact with the president said he watched television coverage late into the night before finally falling asleep.

In the last days of the campaign, Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, debuted a gauzy ad on television that focused on an economic message and was meant to appeal to female voters in suburban areas who have been repelled by Trump’s tone and rhetoric.

But the president did not like the ad, seeing it as visually off, aides said. Trump wanted to focus on immigration, so the campaign’s final video depicted an unauthorized immigrant who had killed police officers. The video was deemed racist by a number of networks, one of them Fox News, and was either pulled or didn’t run at all — a highly unusual move for the campaign of a sitting president.

Trump remained largely silent throughout the day Tuesday. One of his few public comments came early Tuesday in a late-morning, conspiratorial tweet about Democrats.

After campaigning for a Republican Senate candidate, Josh Hawley, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, late Monday, Trump accused Democrats of spreading a rumor that Hawley had left the rally early.

In fact, there is no evidence that Democrats suggested that Hawley left the rally early. The president appears to have been reacting to a statement — offered with no evidence or context — by Brian Kilmeade, a “Fox & Friends” host early Tuesday.

At just after 6 a.m., Kilmeade said: “Why Josh Hawley didn’t stay last night for the Missouri rally is beyond me. What could he have been doing that was so important?”

Where Kilmeade got the impression that Hawley left the rally early is unclear. Many people on Twitter noted Tuesday morning that they saw Hawley on television as the rally was ending.