Former President Donald Trump appeared to criticize fellow Republicans who lost key races on Tuesday, using his speech at the America Business Forum in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday to urge them to “focus on the facts.”
After outlining several of his administration’s accomplishments, Trump said that winning elections is “so easy” when candidates emphasize tangible results.
“Almost 2 million American-born workers are employed today, more than when I took office. That’s nine months ago. Can you imagine?” Trump said. “And I tell Republicans, if you want to win elections, you gotta talk about these facts. You know, it’s so easy to win elections when you talk about the facts.”
He continued, “These are things you have to talk about. It doesn’t just happen, you gotta tell them. It’s wonderful to do them, but if people don’t talk about them, then you can do not so well in elections.”
On Tuesday, Republicans lost several major contests, including gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia and the New York City mayoral election. Although Trump had backed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo over Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, his remarks were interpreted as a broader critique of his party’s performance.
“One year ago, we were a dead country. Now we’re a country that’s considered one of the hottest anywhere in the world,” Trump said, crediting his administration with helping 600,000 Americans move off food stamps and creating nearly 1.9 million jobs since he took office.
While Trump highlighted what he called achievements for working Americans, New York City’s newly elected mayor, Zohran Mamdani, offered a sharply different view earlier in the day.
Appearing on “Good Morning America,” Mamdani argued that, unlike Trump, he was focused on tackling the “cost of living crisis” impacting ordinary Americans. “He’s someone who ran an entire presidential campaign on the promise of cheaper groceries and is now, as the president, making it harder for Americans to afford those groceries by cutting SNAP benefits,” Mamdani said.
Marking the anniversary of his reelection, Trump also responded directly to Mamdani’s win. “We lost a little bit of sovereignty last night in New York, but we’ll take care of that. Don’t worry about it,” he told the Miami crowd.
As the longest government shutdown in U.S. history continues, Republicans and Democrats have traded blame over the ongoing lapse in SNAP benefits, with each side accusing the other of neglecting working families.
