Trump Says He Would Rather Lose the Senate Than Let Iran Build a Bomb

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he would accept losing control of the U.S. Senate before he would allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon, answering a direct question about the political price of the war he began in February. Asked whether the conflict was worth losing the Senate, Trump said yes, adding that there had been no other choice. “If I had it to do again, I’d have to do it again because long term, it’s the only answer,” he said, according to ABC News. “You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

The remarks came after Democrats took both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections. By current projections they flipped seven Senate seats, reaching 54 to the Republicans’ 44, and won at least 250 House seats. Vice President JD Vance did not soften it: “The reason we lost is the war.” Trump did not argue. He acknowledged that the conflict contributed to the defeat and agreed that higher fuel prices explained much of the Republican underperformance.

The price voters paid

The numbers explain why Republicans are blaming the war. Gasoline averaged $4.15 a gallon on Election Day, the highest for any national election since 2000 and a 37% jump over the past year, according to CNBC. The same reporting puts the energy cost to the typical household at about $1,230 since the war began in late February. In ABC’s voter survey, 34% of House voters called the war crucial to their vote, while 49% named the cost of living and 55% named government corruption.

Why it matters

An American president has just told the country, on the morning after a rout, that stopping a nuclear Iran outranks his own majority. That is the kind of choice the Wall Street Journal editorial page has long said leaders should be willing to make, and one that few politicians make when the polls turn. For readers in Brazil and the Brazilian diaspora in the United States, the stakes are concrete: the dollar, Brent crude and the price at the pump all move with Tehran. After Trump’s comments, Brent fell about 9% to $94.62 a barrel, as markets weighed the chance of a deal against the chance of renewed strikes.

What comes next

Trump said he could “finish the job very easily” if Iran refuses binding nuclear limits, and when asked about new strikes he answered, “maybe I will, maybe I won’t,” according to Fox News. Quds Force commander Esmaeil Qaani answered with a warning of a “united” front of Iranian allies across several theaters. On the same day, the Treasury sanctioned individuals who help move Iranian oil. At home, Trump said he would negotiate with the new Democratic majority as long as it avoids destructive tactics, played down the risk of impeachment, and claimed Republicans would have won had his name been on the ballot. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has already promised “legislative razor wire” against the White House, as CBS News reported, which follows the line Trump set days ago in his “I veto everything” warning.

The record

Confirmed: the Democratic majorities, the gasoline average, the voter-survey figures, and the quotes from Trump and Vance. Not confirmed: Trump’s claim that Republicans would have won with his name on the ballot, which is an assertion and not a measured result, and the idea that the war alone cost the Senate, since voters also cited corruption and living costs in large numbers. Earlier coverage on this site traced how the map was already moving, from Texas to Kansas.

The pattern is worth stating plainly. A president chose a strategic line over his party’s short-term interest, and his own vice president named the cost out loud. The next test is a divided Washington: whether a Democratic Congress holds the line on Iran or trades it away for leverage on everything else.

The Watch Post Daily will continue to follow this story. Reporting drawn from ABC News, CNBC, Fox News and CBS News.

Featured image: Capitol at Dusk 2 by Martin Falbisoner, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.