President Donald Trump spent much of Tuesday defending a war that has become an increasingly costly problem for his administration, even as voters prepared to deliver Republicans a political reckoning that would strip them of control of Congress.
The president’s attempts to minimize the conflict took a troubling turn during a live Fox News interview, where he discussed the possibility of more deaths in Iran with striking bluntness as the host offered little resistance.
Hours later, Democrats swept Republicans out of power in both chambers of Congress, and Trump found himself acknowledging that the very war he had been defending helped contribute to his party’s defeat.
“I’m not looking to kill lots of people, but if we have to, we’ll have to,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” host Lawrence Jones who responded with “hmm.”
Jones had asked the president what would happen next in the U.S. conflict with Iran after Election Day, referencing the administration’s justification for military action and its stated goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
By Wednesday morning, the political consequences were unmistakable. Democrats had secured control of the House and Senate, flipping Senate seats in Republican strongholds including Texas, Kansas and South Carolina, where GOP candidates had entered the election with significant advantages.
According to CBS News, Democrats were projected to hold at least 54 Senate seats, with additional races unresolved, while also securing a substantial House majority. The party even captured the Texas governorship for the first time in more than three decades.
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In a Tuesday night interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump acknowledged that the conflict had contributed to the losses.
“Iran was a piece of it,” he conceded, but ultimately stood by his decision.
“I don’t think about it. I did the right thing. I would have done it again,” he said.
Trump pointed instead to rising oil prices as a major political liability and argued that his absence from the ballot had hurt Republicans. He rejected the suggestion that the election amounted to a broader rejection of his presidency.
The Fox News exchange came as the United States carried out additional strikes against Iranian targets, despite Trump’s repeated suggestions that a negotiated agreement could bring the conflict to an end. U.S. officials told Reuters that American forces conducted limited strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island on Monday, targeting surface-to-air missiles used against U.S. assets.
Trump also described an attack on an Iranian anti-aircraft facility that he claimed American forces had monitored for two months before striking shortly after construction finished.
“They built an anti-aircraft facility, it took them about two months. We watched it get built; as soon as it was completed, we hit it last night very nicely,” Trump said.
He characterized the operation as a “minor attack” rather than a return to full-scale fighting, repeatedly arguing that the United States was not engaged in a conventional war.
The president made similar remarks during a Monday night phone interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, where he challenged the characterization of the conflict as a war, while leaving the door open for more moves against Iran.
“This isn’t a war. It’s a very soft war. But this isn’t like a war that’s going on. There’s no war raging. It could happen if they don’t make a deal,” Trump said.
Hannity had asked how Trump could assure Americans that the conflict would not turn into another prolonged military engagement. The president responded by comparing the situation with major historical wars and questioning when the United States had last engaged in sustained fighting with Iran.
“A war is fighting. Take a look at World War I, World War II, these were – when was the last time you saw us fighting with them?” Trump said. “We’re not fighting a war. Everyone says ‘You’re at war.’ Well, when was the last time we fired anything?”
Trump may have been reluctant to even call it a war, but Vice President JD Vance had no such reservations about naming the conflict or assigning it blame for the Republican Party’s devastating election losses.
In a Wednesday post on X, Vance placed the blame squarely on the conflict.
“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote.
“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 continued.
The vice president said some voters who backed Trump in 2024 had turned to Democrats after growing frustrated with the war, rising living costs and the administration’s relationship with Israel.
