Trump acknowledges Iran war played a role in Republican midterm losses as Democrats take Congress
President Donald Trump has acknowledged that the war in Iran played a role in Republicans' sweeping midterm defeats, telling Fox News that voters backed his handling of the conflict but were unwilling to accept the short-term pain of higher gas prices.
President Donald Trump has acknowledged that the war in Iran played a role in Republicans' losses in Tuesday's midterm elections, as Democrats prepared to take control of both the House and the Senate and challenge his legislative agenda for the final two years of his term.
In an interview with Fox News reported on Wednesday, Trump said Democrats would send legislation he considered unacceptable, but he also conceded ground on the conflict that has shadowed his second term. He said the war in Iran had weighed on Republican candidates, even as voters backed his handling of it, according to Reuters' account of the interview.
Trump's own explanation, as carried by Fox News, was more specific. He said he believed he had support on the war with Iran, but felt voters were not willing to put up with the short-term pain of higher gas prices. He added that he did not feel the result was a personal defeat, since he was not himself on the ballot.
The president also struck a conciliatory note towards the winners. "I think the Democrats did a good job," he told Fox News. "I really do. I think they did a good job. They fought hard. They've been fighting for a long time." He said in separate interviews as results rolled in that he was willing to work with the party now controlling Congress, while remaining ready to use his veto.
The reaction among conservatives was far blunter. Fox News reported that members of the conservative media were stunned by what one described as a catastrophic night for Republicans, with many pointing to Trump, the Iran war and surging gas prices as responsible for the scale of the defeat. One commentator quoted by the network called it the biggest national wipeout for Republicans since 2006, when voters punished the party over an ill-planned war in the Middle East.
Others argued the causes ran deeper than a single conflict. Conservative radio host Erick Erickson insisted the issues went far beyond the Iran war and gas prices, pointing to the cost of groceries and a sense that Trump had abandoned the America First message that carried him to office. The debate inside the party over what went wrong is only beginning, and it will shape who leads it into the next presidential contest.
The election outcome itself is no longer in doubt in outline, even as counting continues in some races. Democrats flipped Republican Senate seats in North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Kansas and Iowa, clearing the threshold for control of the chamber, and later secured the House as well, ending four years of Republican control.
That shift changes the balance of power in Washington immediately. A Democratic House and Senate will be able to launch investigations into the Trump administration, the Iran war, tariffs and immigration policy, and to block much of the president's remaining legislative programme, even if they cannot override his veto on their own.
Trump had spent the final days of the campaign presenting the Iran conflict in very different terms, calling it a soft war rather than a forever war and insisting the United States could end it at any time. He also dismissed the financial cost of the conflict, which the Pentagon has put at more than $47 billion, as peanuts compared with the goal of preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon.
The midterm verdict suggests voters weighed that argument against their own household bills and found it wanting. Whether the president adjusts his approach to the war, to prices, or to working with a Democratic Congress will be the first test of how he intends to govern with his party now in the minority on Capitol Hill.
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