Sources close to Trump described him as "fuming" at his Mar-a-Lago estate Tuesday night as GOP candidates he had backed started to lose or underperform.
In addition, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' strong performance in Trump's adopted home state was a wakeup call for some Trump advisers, sources said. DeSantis, seen as a potential 2024 presidential rival for Trump, easily won reelection.
"This is a sinking ship," one top Trump adviser told ABC News. "We're not going to beat that."
"This was the end of the Trump era and the dawn of the DeSantis era," a Republican operative close to the Trump orbit told ABC News. "Like every other Trump catastrophe, he did this to himself with stupid and reckless decisions."
