Andrew Neil says ‘drag’ Trump is not ‘kingmaker’

Donald Trump has proven to be a ‘drag’ on the Republican Party after they failed to storm to a midterms win, Andrew Neil has said. Votes are currently being counted in the US, with projections indicating 48 seats in the Senate have gone to the Democrats and 47 to Republicans.In the House of Representatives, the Republicans have fared better, with 197 seats to the Democrats’ 172.However, Mr Trump had campaigned fiercely for candidates such as Senate hopeful Dr Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. The former President, 76, was expected to make a key difference in this contest.In Pennsylvania, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman narrowly beat Dr Oz with 50.2 percent of the vote after 93 percent of all votes were tallied.However, Mr Trump did secure a victory in Ohio, where author JD Vance won a Senate seat, keeping it in Republican hands. Donald Trump is a ‘drag’ on the Republicans after they failed to storm to a midterms win (Image: GETTY) Andrew Neil said the 45th President was not a ‘kingmaker’ in the US midterms (Image: TWITTER)Trump allies have struggled in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada Senate races, where ballots are still being counted.Mr Neil, editor of the Spectator, took to Twitter to skewer Mr Trump’s chances of being GOP ‘kingmaker’.He wrote: ‘Donald Trump expected to emerge from mid-terms as kingmaker. Looks more likely that he’s been a drag on Republican hopes.’Interesting to see if that affects his supposed ‘major announcement’ next week. Or even if it happens.’FOLLOW OUR LIVE BLOG FOR MORE UPDATES: Trump in ‘rear view mirror’ as Republicans wake up to results Trump-backed candidates like Dr Mehmet Oz failed to win narrow races for the senate Trump-backed cand (Image: GETTY) Donald Trump said simply at Mar-a-Lago that it was an ‘interesting evening’ (Image: GETTY)It comes after Mr Trump entered Mar-a-Lago for an election night watch party to rapturous applause after top aides from his political team and donors filled the room.The 45th President later said it had been an ‘interesting evening’ before praising the Republican Senate candidate Katie Britt, whose win in Alabama was considered a foregone conclusion.He was silent about Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s sweeping re-election and, after his remarks, Mr Trump sat entrenched at a large table near the front of the ballroom as he watched the results of the election flash across a television tuned to Fox News. James D.Boys previously said the GOP may ask ‘have we gone too far’ if they fail to win big (Image: GETTY)Ahead of the US midterms, Dr James D.Boys, visiting scholar at Tufts University, Massachusetts, told Express.co.uk: ‘I think it’s fair to say that if the Democratic Party has a better night than expected, then all of a sudden the Republican Party will be looking around and saying ‘God why didn’t we have a better night?”I think there will be an attempt to blame Trump and the MAGA wing for being too extreme, which means the Midterms could be the continuation of the long end of Donald Trump’s influence over American politics.’He has clearly gone out and endorsed many candidates during the primary season. We’ve seen moderate republicans forced out of office long before the midterms themselves because they’ve not succeeded or not entered into the primaries because they had been primaried by MAGA candidates.’Dr Boys then said: ‘So I think that if the republicans fail to have a great night, the party will be forced to look around and go ‘have we gone too far? Do we need to dial this back?”