Washington: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday acknowledged that the war in Iran was “largely true” as a reason for the Republican Party's heavy losses in the midterm elections, but struck a defiant note, saying he would launch the war again as it was the “only answer” in the long term to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“Well, I think it's largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short term,” Trump told reporters when asked about Vice President JD Vance's remarks that the Iran war led to Republican losses in the election.
“But at the same time, if I had it to do again, I'd have to do it again. Because long term, it's the only answer. You can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
Trump insisted that the US would have done nothing differently as far as the war was concerned, claiming that Iran's military capabilities had been largely destroyed.
“But I can tell you that as far as that war is concerned, I would have done nothing different. We've totally broken their military. The navy's gone. Their air force is gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone,” Trump said.
“The Iran thing, we had to do, and we continue to do it. We have tremendous oil flowing out of the Hormuz Strait now. At the beginning, there was none. And, probably that's the primary reason – the price, not the war, the price (of oil),” he added.
The president also said he was not considering replacing Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, despite public dissatisfaction with the war, describing him as “doing a great job”.
Vice President JD Vance, often seen as Trump's likely successor at the White House, had blamed the president's war in Iran for the Republicans' midterm wipeout.
It was a tough election night for Trump as he lashed out at Republican candidates and even the media over the political reversals. Some of his reactions, reflected in Truth Social posts, were balanced, while others appeared to vent frustration as poll results trickled in.
“The Fox News poll, always the worst, is so insulting with the questions they ask. Every question is a hit job, and every answer is BULLSHIT! This has been going on for years,” Trump said about his favourite news channel.
Trump, who addressed 30 rallies urging voters to pretend that he was on the ballot, later blamed Republican candidates for the electoral losses.
“I wasn’t on the ballot, and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE,” he said as the trends indicated a wave in favour of the Democrats.
As Republicans lost Texas, a strong red state, to the Democrats, Trump targeted outgoing Governor Gregg Abbott and questioned his commitment to the party.
“If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost. He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty,” Trump said.
RINO is an acronym for “Republican In Name Only”.
A little while later, Trump declared that he would become a political pundit and dissect the reasons behind the candidates' victories and defeats.
“I’m going to become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost,” he said.
Trump also posted a photo of a red cap with “veto” in bold, suggesting he would rule by executive order for the remainder of his term.
However, he appeared to discount the idea as he suggested in media interviews that he was ready to work with the Democrats.
“I don’t want to be just sitting there for two years vetoing everything,” Trump told Politico, a media outlet he had banned from covering the White House.
He also lashed out at Fox News for having former New York Governor Bill de Blasio as a commentator on the midterm elections.
“Why does Fox News have Bill de Blasio, the Worst Mayor in the History of New York City, on air, ranting and raving like a Lunatic,” Trump said.
“He left the City in disgrace, and the damage he caused was incalculable — It has never been the same, and now he’s telling us how to run America.
Fox News bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Democrat opposition, and worse,” he added.
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump posted pages of the New York Post carrying a three-page report on how the US president had increased American influence in the Western Hemisphere.
