Trump says Iran war largely to blame for Republicans' Midterm losses

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Trump says Iran war largely to blame for Republicans' Midterm losses

2026-11-05 13:49 Last Updated At：16:52

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday admitted that the war in Iran was largely responsible for the Republican Party's losses in the midterm elections, saying the conflict had driven up energy prices and eroded voter support.

Making his first public appearance at the White House after Tuesday's elections, Trump was asked about remarks by Vice President JD Vance, who had attributed the party's defeat to the Iran war, an assessment the president said he broadly shared.

"I think it's largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short term," Trump said.

Even so, the president defended the decision to go to war, framing it as a strategic necessity that outweighed any electoral fallout and declaring that he would "do it again" given the chance, because he would not "let Iran have a nuclear weapon."

Trump also rejected suggestions that the conflict would be wound down quickly now that the elections were over, insisting he had never promised to end the war in Iran immediately after the midterms.

"The war will end whenever I want it to. But it’s got to be done right," Trump said.

The president's comments came after Vance, in a lengthy post on social media platform X earlier Wednesday, cited a pollster who had accurately predicted the election results and found that many voters who backed Trump in 2024 were angry and planned to vote for Democrats.

When asked what would bring them back to the party, those voters pointed to four demands: ending the war, focusing on the cost of living and inflation, putting the United States first, and changing the U.S. relationship with Israel.

Vance argued, however, that rising oil prices, rather than the war itself, were the biggest political liability.

The results of the 2026 United States midterm elections dealt Republicans a heavy defeat, with Democrats projected to take control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, securing at least 51 of the chamber's 100 seats. Several U.S. media outlets described the outcome as a "blue wave," or even a "blue tsunami."

Russian FM says ready to cooperate with West, but well prepared in face of conflict

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Russia has never closed its door to the West and remains ready to cooperate with Western countries that abandon hostile thinking towards it.

Meanwhile, Lavrov stressed that Russia does not want or plan to wage war with Europe, but is prepared if Europe decides to initiate conflict.

The prospect for direct dialogue with Europe remains unclear, Lavrov said, noting that the West is departing from the objective trend toward multipolarity globally.

Lavrov made the remarks at the fourth Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security that opened in the Belarusian capital on Tuesday.

The event hosted by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry brought together more than 600 representatives from around 50 countries and regions.

In his opening speech, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko noted that building a sustainable security and development model in Eurasia is a practical necessity that will benefit the world.

He said that the high level of protests across Europe should raise caution, and urged EU nations to seek avenues for cooperation.

The Belarusian president also said that the Ukrainian crisis could potentially trigger another major war and expressed hope that a peaceful resolution will be found swiftly to the conflict.

The agenda of the two-day Minsk conference includes arms control, the role of new technologies in security, and the development of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which has six members: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.