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The first heat check of Donald Trump’s second term clanged off the rim on Tuesday, and that’s got the GOP rattled. 

Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory in New York City brought on an uncharacteristically diverse range of freakouts from the MAGA faithful. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted a statistic about immigrant households in the city of New York, with no further comment. House Speaker Mike Johnson warned that Mamdani’s “extremist” platform of free buses and universal child care might be contagious. He added that the obvious anger of the voting public was nothing for currently elected Republicans to worry about. 

“I think people are frustrated and angry as we are. I am,” Johnson said. “But we’re looking forward to a great election running on our record, and we’re going to get all of our incumbents reelected and we’re going to add to the number here.”

Rep. Randy Fine of Florida lamented that “New York City has fallen” and called Mamdani a “jihadist.” Not to be outdone, Rep. Randy Ogles of Tennessee followed up an Election Day clip of a plane hitting the second tower of the World Trade Center with a call to restart the House Un-American Activities Committee.

While losses in New York’s mayoral race and Virginia’s governor’s race were expected, the stark blue shift among voters in New Jersey, coupled with California’s approval of new House maps, came as an unpleasant shock. 

“We got our a**es handed to us,” Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy admitted in a video posted on X. 

Even the big guy himself was clearly shaken by the across-the-board losses in high-profile races. In a meeting with Senate Republicans on Wednesday morning, Trump noted that his party’s attempts to hang the government shutdown on the Democratic Party had failed. 

“I don’t think it was good for Republicans,” he said. “I’m not sure it was good for anybody.”

Trump is clearly hearing the approaching footsteps of the 2026 midterms and the end of full Republican control of the federal government. He urged the assembled senators to nuke the filibuster and was reportedly met with uncomfortable silence. 

This, in itself, not a major victory. The Supreme Court is still held by Trump cronies. The federal government is still shuttered. Trump’s secret police continue their rampage. But after almost a year of Trump and his true believers gloating while doing whatever the hell they want, you have to admit it's nice to see them sweat.

What do you think? Will the GOP wiggle its way out of this one? Will voters still be this mad come the midterms? Click the speech bubble to sound off in the comments.

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