Even Republicans have no confidence Trump will accept losses: 'He’ll say something stupid'

More than a third of Republicans doubt President Donald Trump would accept the results if his party loses next month’s midterm elections, according to a new poll.

Thirty-six percent of Republicans say they are not confident Trump would accept GOP losses, along with 77 percent of independents and 94 percent of Democrats, according to the new Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos survey. Overall, 7 in 10 Americans lack confidence he would accept defeat, even as most say they trust that the elections themselves will be fair.

Some longtime Republican voters told the Post they have little doubt about how Trump would react.

“He’ll fight it,” said Gary Podbielski, 67, a retired IT manager in the Houston area who typically votes Republican but plans to back Democrats this year. “He’ll say something stupid.”

Jonnie Smith, 69, a human resources manager from Johnson City, Tennessee, who usually votes Republican but opposes Trump, agreed.

“He has to throw dirt on it if it doesn’t come out his way, period,” Smith said. “He’s shown us that every time he loses.”

Trump has spent years casting doubt on elections. He has pushed false claims that he won in 2020 and insisted without evidence that he got more votes in 2016 than official tallies show. When NBC News asked him in February whether he would trust the midterm results if Republicans lost Congress, Trump said, “I will if the elections are honest.”

He has also said he wants to “nationalize the voting” and “take over” elections, which the Constitution leaves to the states. In January, he told the New York Times he regretted not having troops seize voting machines after his 2020 loss.

By contrast, 61 percent of Americans are confident Democratic leaders would accept a loss, including 58 percent of independents.

Partisans are closely aligned on whether the elections will be fair, with 70 percent of Democrats and 67 percent of Republicans expressing confidence.

Overall, 65 percent of Americans are confident votes will be counted accurately, essentially unchanged from 2022. Republican confidence on that question is far higher than before the 2024 election, when just 49 percent said so.

More Americans expect Democrats to win the House than expect Republicans to keep it, 35 percent to 16 percent. Another 28 percent call the race a toss-up.

Trump’s administration has already tried to reshape how elections are run. It has weakened federal agencies meant to safeguard voting and tried to restrict mail voting until the Supreme Court blocked the move.

Local election officials have told the Post they are preparing for the possibility of seized ballots and federal agents at the polls.