Trump says he’s ‘locked in’ on Iran after midterm losses

President Donald Trump has to decide what to do next in an unpopular war with Iran, now eight months old, after Democrats took both chambers of Congress in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. His own vice president has blamed the war for the result. In the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump suggested the losses would not change his thinking: "If we have to do the rest of the Iran thing, we're very much locked in," he said, according to the Associated Press.pbs.org

Vance and Trump on the loss

"The reason we lost is the war," Vice President JD Vance wrote on X on Wednesday. "If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so," he added, CBS News reported. When reporters asked Trump about the post, he said, "I think it's largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short term." He added that "if I had it to do again, I'd have to do it again" because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, according to CBS.cbsnews.com

The AP Voter Poll found that about 6 in 10 voters thought taking military action against Iran was the wrong decision. Only about a third said the war was crucial to their vote, compared with roughly half who said that about the cost of living, the AP reported.pbs.org

Escalation, stalemate or a deal

On election night, Trump told the Financial Times he had no immediate plans to strike Iran. "We're locked and loaded if we need to go, but there may be no reason for it," he said, The Hill reported. Reuters reported that analysts see three options: a new round of airstrikes, a negotiated exit, or keeping the current tense stalemate. People familiar with the deliberations told Reuters he could still take military action. David Schenker, a former State Department official, said one route would be to strike the underground Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site and then pursue a "fig leaf agreement," the AP reported.thehill.com+2

Oil prices fell for a fourth day in a row. Traders bet the Democratic wins made escalation less likely, Semafor reported, though CBS News later reported a slight rebound after more ships were attacked in the Persian Gulf.semafor.com+1

Tehran responds

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliament speaker and lead negotiator, wrote on X: "Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message." He warned that if Washington ignored that message, "it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare," The Hill reported.thehill.com

Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei played down what the vote would change. "If there are still those who believe that America can be persuaded to abandon its hostility toward the Iranian nation through concessions or partisan changes in the US political system, they are gravely mistaken," he said, according to DW.dw.com