One Day Until Midterms... Trump Warns He Will Become 'Mr. Veto' If Democrats Win

[Anchor]

The U.S. midterm elections, which will shape the fate of the Trump administration, are just one day away. President Trump emphasized that if the opposition takes control of Congress, he will actively exercise his presidential veto.

Our Washington correspondent, Jeon Byeong-nam, has more.

[Reporter]

U.S. President Trump visited the battleground states of Iowa and Kansas for his final midterm campaign stops.

While Iowa and Kansas, with their heavy reliance on agriculture, were once solid strongholds that backed President Trump by margins of over 10 percentage points in the previous presidential election, Republican candidates are struggling in these states this particular race.

Emphasizing "America First" throughout his speech, President Trump rallied his base by labeling Democratic candidates as "communists" and "jihadists."

[Donald Trump / U.S. President: Well, on November 3, every American patriot must cast a ballot and consign the communists and jihadists to political oblivion.]

Dismissing oil prices—the biggest headwind in the midterms—by predicting they would soon fall, he blamed the previous Biden administration for inflation.

[Donald Trump / U.S. President: When the radical left Democrats were in power, they handed us the worst inflation in American history, the highest energy prices in American history, and the worst trade deficit in American history.]

President Trump also touted the development of the Alaska LNG pipeline project as a fait accompli, stating, "There are pipelines heading toward South Korea, Japan, China, and elsewhere."

In addition, he outlined a countermeasure in the event of an election defeat, declaring, "If the Democrats take control of Congress, I will become 'Mr. Veto' and aggressively exercise presidential vetoes."

A day earlier, President Trump hosted a lavish Halloween party inviting hundreds of guests to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The New York Times pointed out that while the Republican Party was preparing for a potential midterm defeat, Trump appeared absorbed in entertaining guests.

(Photo: Yonhap News) (Video by Oh Jung-shik | Video Editing by Kim Byung-jik | Design by Hwang Se-yeon)

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[Anchor]

Let's connect with our Washington bureau to examine the current landscape and remaining variables of these midterm elections.

Q. Are Democrats poised to retake both houses?

[Reporter Jeon Byeong-nam: Favorable outlooks for the Democrats continue to emerge. Election forecaster Decision Desk HQ projected an 83 percent chance for the Democrats to retake the House and a 63 percent chance for the Senate. The Cook Political Report also analyzed that the Democrats could secure up to 240 seats in the House, marking their largest number of seats since 2009. Early voting for these midterms reached record highs, and among participating voters, the proportion of registered Democrats was found to be 11 percentage points higher than that of Republicans.]

Q. What are the final variables in the midterm elections?

[Reporter Jeon Byeong-nam: If the Democrats secure both the House and the Senate, they will be able to check Trump with overwhelming congressional power. Currently, seven states—Alaska, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, and Maine—are classified as battlegrounds. Most of these have shifted from being strong Republican regions into competitive races, and the final mobilization of conservative voters is expected to determine the outcome. Among them, in Alaska, allegations arose that Democrats ran an independent candidate with the same name as the Republican nominee. In Michigan, a Democratic House representative endorsed the Republican candidate instead of the staunchly progressive Democratic Senate nominee, making it a late variable. The so-called 'shy Trump' factor is also in play. According to an NBC poll, despite unfavorable ratings for Trump, respondents who favored the Republican Party over the Democratic Party outnumbered the latter by 9 percentage points. In particular, among his core base of MAGA Republicans, 93 percent of respondents approved of President Trump's job performance. Some forecasts suggest that if 'shy Trump' voters, feeling a sense of crisis over a potential election loss, rally together, it may not be easy for the Democrats to capture a Senate majority.]

(On-site coverage: Oh Jung-shik | Video Editing by So Ji-hye | Design by Byun Da-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.