Trump says Iran war was ‘largely’ behind Republican midterm losses
At his first public remarks after the vote, Trump cited gasoline prices while saying he would make the same decision on Iran again. Republicans offered competing explanations for the defeat.
US President Donald Trump said on November 4 that the Iran war was “largely” responsible for Republican losses in the midterm elections, citing a short-term rise in gasoline prices. At his first public remarks on the results, delivered at the White House ballroom construction site, he also said he would make the same decision again because Iran must not obtain a nuclear weapon, TheJournal.ie reported.
Trump initially spoke about the ballroom project before turning to the election. He twice said, “If I were on the ballot, we would have won,” and pointed to the crowds at Republican rallies. He said the enthusiasm had not transferred to the party’s candidates, according to TheJournal.ie.
Republicans disagreed over why the party lost
Some Republican voices described the result as a rebuke of Trump. Bill Miller, a Texas Republican lobbyist, called it a “total, complete rejection” of the president and a “disaster of the first magnitude,” the BBC reported in coverage republished by Hindustan Times. The report said Republicans also blamed Trump’s leadership and policies for the losses.
Other allies argued that the outcome reflected the usual midterm pattern in which the president’s party loses ground, along with weak Republican candidates in competitive states including Georgia, Michigan and Texas. But a senior Senate Republican official told POLITICO that the scale of the defeat went beyond individual candidates, the BBC report said.
Trump stood by the Iran decision
Asked whether he agreed that the war was the reason Republicans lost, Trump said he thought that was “largely true” because it pushed gasoline prices up “a little bit” in the short term. He then defended continuing the war, saying, “You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” TheJournal.ie reported. His remarks tied his own explanation of the losses to the conflict while making clear he did not intend to reverse course.
Trump also rejected the prospect of impeachment, saying it would destroy the Democratic Party and that there was “no reason” to impeach him. He ruled out firing Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, despite blaming the war for the election losses, according to TheJournal.ie.
The accounts document competing explanations within the party: Trump acknowledged a political cost from the war but defended it, while some Republicans faulted his leadership and others pointed to candidate quality and midterm history. They do not establish that any one factor caused the result.
Read in depth: World
Oil prices fall as Vance blames Iran war for Republican losses
Crude futures dropped on November 4 after JD Vance linked Republican midterm losses to the war. Analysts saw a possible shift toward diplomacy, while warning that escalation...
Pentagon official says US was unprepared for drone warfare
Emil Michael said the United States was caught flat-footed by drone warfare in Ukraine and Russia. He put the US stockpile at about 500,000 drones, far below Ukraine’s estimate...
Sources and context
- 'If I were on the ballot we would have won': Trump reacts to midterm resultsTheJournal.ie; article credits additional reporting by AFP
- Republicans turn on Trump after midterm defeat, call results ‘disaster of first magnitude’BBC reporting, republished by Hindustan Times
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.