Trump admits Iran war hurt Republicans in US midterms

United States President Donald Trump said Democrats “did a good job” after securing control of both chambers of Congress and blamed the Republicans’ defeat, in part, on the war he launched against Iran earlier this year. 

Nevertheless, he insisted he does not regret the decision.

Trump told The New York Times that he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results of the midterm elections and that he aims to negotiate with Democrats. “We’ll look forward to working with them,” he said. “We’ll probably work something out.”

According to preliminary results, Democrats won seven seats from Republicans and will hold 54 of the Senate’s 100 seats, compared with the Republicans’ 44. In the House of Representatives, meanwhile, the opposition won 25 seats and will hold 228, while Republicans will have 139 of the chamber’s 435 seats.

Speaking to U.S. outlets Fox News and The Wall Street Journal about the reasons for the defeat, Trump said the war against Iran “was part of it.” Despite the fact that during his presidential campaign he had promised “no new wars,” he maintained that he had “done the right thing.”

“I would have done it again,” he said.

The war, now in its ninth month, continues to face high levels of disapproval among Americans and became one of the main targets of criticism from Democratic candidates during the election campaign.

Opposition leaders linked the conflict to the rising price of gasoline and other consumer goods, amid growing concerns about the cost of living. The economic toll became one of the main arguments against the Republican administration.

In Iran, the speaker of the country’s parliament, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, celebrated the Democrats’ victories, saying that the U.S. had voted “no to war.”

Trump said another reason for the Republican loss was that he himself was not a candidate.

“I wasn’t on the ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” he wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.

In another post, he also shared a photo of a red cap bearing the word VETO, suggesting he could use the presidential power to override congressional decisions during his remaining two years in office.

Reactions in Argentina In Argentina, President Javier Milei a staunch defender of Donald Trump and his closest ally in South America made no comments or posts on X about the election.

However, his political advisor Santiago Caputo took to the social network and wrote: “As the data is analyzed, we’ll be able to come up with more or less reasonable hypotheses about what happened today (none from you, idiots). At this very moment, the only indisputable fact is that the Democratic Party, Kirchnerism, remnants of the Coalicin Cvica [an Argentine centrist party], Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, and the Chinese Communist Party are celebrating.”

Former President Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner, who is serving a six-year sentence under house arrest and a lifetime ban on holding public office over a corruption case, posted a cheeky comment in English on X, seemingly referring to the U.S. midterms: “Beautiful morning!!!”

She leads Kirchnerism, a faction of Argentina’s center-left Peronist movement and currently one of the most vocal and combative sectors of the opposition to Milei. 

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, she said she had not ruled out returning to public office. “When I recover my political rights, why not?”