Trump responds to losing congress by identifying the real problem: it gets dark in winter

Following a night in which Republicans lost the House and the Senate, with defeats in Kansas, South Carolina and Texas that analysts had not thought possible, President Trump returned to Truth Social on Thursday to address the issue that had clearly been weighing on him most: the sunset.

“It’s so dark outside, so early,” the president wrote, noting that the sun had set at 5.06pm and that it was dark by 5.31pm, a sequence of events he described as “ridiculous.”

Political observers had expected a statement on the cost of living, the unpopular war in Iran, or the results, which were being widely read as a rejection of his two years in office. The president instead chose to criticise the autumn.

He called on the Senate to approve the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent, or, as he put it, the “I Don’t Want to Change My Clocks Anymore Act,” the only piece of legislation in American history to be named after a mood.

The post urged Republicans to secure one final legislative victory while they still control Congress. They have until January. The Senate, which has had the better part of a decade to pass the bill, has not, and has been preoccupied this week with losing.

The president also complained that everyone has been “running around changing their clocks all over the place confusing their votes,” a phenomenon that happens twice a year and has so far not been blamed for any midterm results.

Astronomers confirmed that the sun sets earlier in November because of the tilt of the Earth’s axis, a matter currently outside the jurisdiction of Congress.

Democrats said they were looking forward to working on the cost of living. The president said it was still dark.