In an interview with Reuters on January 14, 2026, published the next day, Trump complained that a president's party tends to lose seats in the midterms. “It's some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don't win the midterms,” he said. He then said his administration had accomplished so much that “when you think of it, we shouldn't even have an election.” The Independent, citing Reuters, reported that he also expressed frustration that Republicans could lose control of the House or the Senate in November.
The White House said it was a joke. Asked about it at a January 15 briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The president was simply joking. He was saying: We're doing such a great job, we're doing everything the American people thought, maybe we should just keep rolling. But he was speaking facetiously.”
It was not the first time that month. Earlier in January, speaking to House Republicans, Trump said, “How we have to even run against these people — I won't say cancel the election, they should cancel the election,” and added, “The fake news would say, 'He wants the elections canceled. He's a dictator.' They always call me a dictator,” Democracy Docket reported.
The president has no power to cancel or move a congressional election. Federal law sets Election Day as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every even-numbered year, and the Constitution leaves the rules for congressional elections to the states and to Congress. This entry records a statement, which the White House called a joke, and no step toward acting on it.