President Donald Trump said the Iran war was “part of” the reason Republicans lost control of Congress on Tuesday, but he insisted the war was necessary to keep Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon, according to Fox News.
Trump made the remarks in a phone interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier around midnight Eastern time as election returns came in, according to Fox News.
President Trump told Fox News the Iran war contributed to Republican losses as Democrats seized control of Congress in the midterms, saying 'I think a part of it was Iran' https://t.co/6Jqz0elgMj pic.twitter.com/E14tcaIaq4
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 4, 2026
“I think a part of it was Iran. But at the same time, people understood the importance of what I’ve done with Iran,” Trump said, according to Fox News. “I think historically it’s going to be much more important than this evening, because you can’t let the number one state sponsor of terror have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump argued that earlier presidents should have dealt with Iran and that he had no choice, Fox News reported. “I was given the task, and I had no choice, because there were two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon,” he said, according to Fox News. He also criticized the Obama-era nuclear agreement as “one of the worst and dumbest deals,” Fox News reported.
Trump also told Politico he remains “totally convinced” that launching the war was the right decision, according to Fox News, which reported that Trump doubled down on the war in multiple interviews Tuesday night.
Gulf News, citing the interview, reported that Trump said he was “a little bit surprised” by the outcome, that he would veto legislation he considers “insane” and that he sees no reason to change his Cabinet. On further strikes on Iran, Trump said “we’re going to take a look,” Gulf News reported.
The Associated Press reported that the midterms channeled voters’ frustration over high prices, the Iran war and concerns about government corruption. Gulf News reported that a Fox News Voter Poll found young, independent, rural and Hispanic voters turned against Republicans, citing the Iran war and tariffs.
In the same late-night Fox News interview, Trump said he did not consider the elections a personal defeat and blamed the candidates rather than himself, according to the Associated Press. The AP reported that Trump also said on Fox that he would accept the results, after Democrats had braced for him to challenge them.
Earlier in the evening, before polls closed on the West Coast, Trump wrote on his social media site that he was not on the ballot and that Republicans would have won in a landslide if he had been, according to the AP. He also vowed to veto legislation from a Democrat-controlled Congress and shared an image of a red baseball cap with “veto” stenciled in the style of his trademark campaign hats, the AP reported.
Fox News host Sean Hannity said the results would “100 percent” have been different without the war, according to Gulf News. Gulf News also reported that the Pentagon estimates the war has cost taxpayers more than $47 billion, and that a Fox News poll found 71 percent of respondents think the administration lacks a plan to end it.
Trump’s defenders argue the case he made on Fox: that a nuclear-armed Iran would be far more dangerous to Americans than any single election result, and that the threat was left unresolved by earlier administrations. Trump told Fox News that Iran is “the most dangerous country in the world.”
The new Democratic majorities take over when Congress convenes in January, according to the AP.
Sources
Sources cited
- https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/iran-war-news-trump-elections-oil-prices-november-4
- https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-part-of-it-trump-lists-reasons-for-republican-losses-12281169
- https://gulfnews.com/world/americas/trump-acknowledges-iran-war-played-role-in-us-midterms-defeat-1.500735207
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/democrats-win-control-of-the-u-s-house
Sources
- Original post: Reuters (@Reuters) on X, Nov 4, 2026
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