It's him or "communism": true to his strategy of polarization, Donald Trump reacted very aggressively on Wednesday after suffering crushing defeats in local elections, which put his party in a delicate position for the legislative elections of autumn 2026.

Exactly one year ago today, he was re-elected after promising to boost the purchasing power of Americans.

But the promise was not kept, and on Tuesday night, opposition candidates won by a wide margin in New Jersey, Virginia and New York, where socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor after a meteoric political rise.

"We have a choice between communism and common sense," the US president declared in a speech in Miami, Florida. "Our opponents are offering you an economic nightmare. We are achieving an economic miracle," he asserted, even as polls show growing voter dissatisfaction with the cost of living and his sweeping tariff strategy.

"If you want to know what Democratic lawmakers want to do to America, look at the result of yesterday's election in New York, where their party installed a communist as mayor," the 79-year-old billionaire added.

This result leads to a "loss of sovereignty" for the United States, he even asserted, in an apparent allusion to the origins of Zohran Mamdani, a thirty-year-old of Indian descent and the first Muslim elected mayor of the largest American city, whose name he pretended to be unable to pronounce correctly.

- "A very, very bad evening" -

There is therefore no sign of mea culpa on the economy in the aftermath of a "very, very bad night" for Trump and the Republican party, Robert Rowland, professor of communication at the University of Kansas, told AFP.

Thomas Kahn, a professor of political science at American University in Washington, told AFP that the Democratic victories in New York, New Jersey and Virginia, beyond obvious differences, have "a common theme: the cost of living".

Republicans must heed the "warning," Steve Bannon, one of the leading ideologues of the Maga (Make America Great Again) movement, warned on Tuesday.

As for Vice President JD Vance, while he judged on X that it would be "stupid to overreact" to the previous day's elections, he half-heartedly acknowledged that there was still work to be done on purchasing power.

"Rome wasn't built in a day. We will continue to work to enable a decent standard of living in this country, and that is what we will be judged on" during the midterm elections, he warned.

"Trump's approach is to always be right," explains Robert Rowland. "But all of this clashes with what people experience when they go to the supermarket."

- "Living like a prince" -

Thomas Kahn, for his part, mentions the gilding and marble with which the Republican fills the White House, or a flashy party he gave for Halloween: "Americans are struggling and they see him living like a prince."

Republicans, who control Congress, therefore find themselves in an uncomfortable position a year before the midterm elections. These elections renew one-third of the Senate seats and all those of the other component of Congress, the House of Representatives.

Conservatives "have tied their fate to Trump" and the whole question for them is how to "dissociate themselves from him," analyzes Wendy Schiller, professor of political science at Brown University.

But Republican candidates "cannot directly oppose" him without risking being sidelined in favor of more radical candidates during the primaries, Robert Rowland cautions.

Trump himself on Wednesday called on his camp to boast without nuance about his economic successes and his brutal anti-immigration policy.

"Those who bet against him have always lost," Thomas Kahn points out, recalling the incredible political comeback abilities of the American president, re-elected despite the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 by his supporters, despite prosecution and a criminal conviction.