Donald Trump says that Vance’s comment about Iran war kneecapping Republicans in catastrophic midterms are ‘largely true’

Donald Trump responded to JD Vance’s comments today that the war in Iran was ultimately the reason behind the catastrophic Republican losses in the House and Senate in this year’s midterms.

“I think it’s largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short term,” Trump said. “But at the same time … I’d have to do it again because long term, it’s the only answer.”

The president said that he felt the decision to begin the conflict was unavoidable. “I thought the oil would go up a lot more,” Trump said. “You have no choice. You have to do it. You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump once again insisted that if he were on the ballot Republicans would have won their races, which in many cases they lost to Democrats in historic landslides.

“They just couldn’t transfer that love,” Trump said. “There was such love at those rallies. It was incredible. We weren’t able to transfer the love to candidates.”

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Updated at 19.43 CET

Key events

• 28m ago

  Donald Trump says that Vance’s comment about Iran war kneecapping Republicans in catastrophic midterms are ‘largely true’

• 45m ago

  Top House Democrat says party will hold hearings and pass regulations on AI, datacenters

• 51m ago

  Trump avoids speaking about stunning Republican losses in first public event post-midterms

• 1h ago

  Democrat Christina Bertrand Hines flips red Michigan House district

• 1h ago

  Hakeem Jeffries: Democrats have been handed a mandate ‘to make life more affordable’

• 1h ago

  Mississippi US Senate race still on knife’s edge with 96% of votes counted

• 2h ago

  Schumer says Democrats’ priorities are reducing costs and ending corruption after taking control of Congress

• 2h ago

  JD Vance says it’s ‘obvious to almost everyone’ that war on Iran is ‘the reason we lost’ midterms

• 3h ago

  ‘We want our taxes spent here’: 12 Democrats weigh in after sweeping the US midterm elections

• 3h ago

  ‘The people of America have spoken’: world leaders react to US midterm elections

• 3h ago

  Midterms: how the blue wave took Congress in three minutes – video

• 3h ago

  Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise among Republicans looking to replace Johnson as top House Republican, reports say

• 3h ago

  Mike Johnson not to seek minority leadership role, reports say

• 3h ago

  ‘PSA: Trump is still your president,’ White House posts on Instagram

• 4h ago

  Wall Street opens higher after Democrats secure Congress

• 4h ago

  Mike Johnson won’t seek minority leadership, as Jim Jordan eyes the role: media reports

• 4h ago

  A blue tsunami wipes out Republicans – podcast

• 4h ago

  ‘A win the size of Texas’: Democrats celebrate shrinking Republican dominance in a big state

• 5h ago

  In GOP midterm defeat, British prime minister sees ‘opportunity’ to work together to address Iran war, cost of living

• 5h ago

  Mark Teixeira, Former Yankees all-star and World Series champion, wins House race in Texas

• 6h ago

  Trump ally Lauren Boebert at risk of losing Congress seat in Colorado’s 4th District to Democrat challenger

• 6h ago

  Democrats secure majority in the House as voters punish Republican Party

Across the board this midterm cycle there were shifts in favor for Democrats in every category, according to exit poll data compiled by the Associated Press.

Here’s a breakdown, thanks to my colleagues on the data team.

Guardian graphic. Source: Associated Press Voter Trend exit poll, based on 80,000 interviews at polling stations during the 2026 House electionGuardian graphic. Source: Associated Press Voter Trend exit poll, based on 80,000 interviews at polling stations during the 2026 House electionShare

Trump also said that he was not considering replacing Pete Hegseth as defense secretary. “I think he’s doing a very good job,” Trump said.

This comes after reports circulated that Marsha Blackburn could appoint Hegseth to finish out the remainder of her US Senate seat in Tennessee, after she won her contest for governor.

“I actually think he’d be very popular if he did that. But I haven’t heard that at all,” the president added.

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Donald Trump didn’t give a clear answer about whether he knew JD Vance was going to post about the Iran war costing Republicans control of Congress.

“I know how he feels about it. I think it was. I think it was fine. I thought it was good,” Trump said, while remaining belligerent about his decision to start the conflict. “I can tell you that as far as that war is concerned, I would have done nothing different.”

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Updated at 19.33 CET

Donald Trump says that Vance’s comment about Iran war kneecapping Republicans in catastrophic midterms are ‘largely true’

Donald Trump responded to JD Vance’s comments today that the war in Iran was ultimately the reason behind the catastrophic Republican losses in the House and Senate in this year’s midterms.

“I think it’s largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short term,” Trump said. “But at the same time … I’d have to do it again because long term, it’s the only answer.”

The president said that he felt the decision to begin the conflict was unavoidable. “I thought the oil would go up a lot more,” Trump said. “You have no choice. You have to do it. You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump once again insisted that if he were on the ballot Republicans would have won their races, which in many cases they lost to Democrats in historic landslides.

“They just couldn’t transfer that love,” Trump said. “There was such love at those rallies. It was incredible. We weren’t able to transfer the love to candidates.”

Share

Updated at 19.43 CET

Richard Luscombe

in Miami

Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, moved quickly today to position himself among the leading pack of 2028 Republican presidential hopefuls by attacking party colleagues who lost seats in the midterms bloodbath.

Bucking the national trend, but just barely, Florida voters elected Republicans to the US Senate and governor’s mansion yesterday, achievements DeSantis boasted were because of his eight-year term as governor that ends in January.

“People can look at Florida and show how you can deliver big results and how you can build a durable coalition,” he told a press conference in Tallahassee.

“Why did Florida hold up? Why were we able to hold the line? The answer is we’ve built up a record of achievement. We’ve earned trust from our voters that even in the worst situation that you can imagine politically, we were able to prevent the worst from happening here,” he said.

DeSantis had harsh words for Republicans in Washington who he said failed to deliver campaign promises, including releasing the Epstein files and cleaning up corruption.

“We ran as Republicans on saying we need to do that, and then you actually have people in the Congress voting against release when the attorney general said she had all this horrific stuff on her desk and that people were going to be held accountable,” he said. “It’s untenable when you have people trading stock. Why don’t they ban congressional stock trading? It would be a breath of fresh air.”

DeSantis’s run for the 2024 presidential nomination, won by Donald Trump, ended in humiliation when he dropped out early. Speaking to reporters today, he said he would “talk about anything we’re doing” in terms of the 2028 contest after he is termed out of office on 5 January.

Analysts see DeSantis as all but certain to run again. In a blistering podcast interview yesterday, he attacked Trump’s handling of the Iran war, the economy and the president’s second-term immigration crackdown.

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Updated at 19.23 CET

Top House Democrat says party will hold hearings and pass regulations on AI, datacenters

Ted Lieu, a California representative and vice-chair of the House Democratic caucus, said that Republicans had made a mistake by failing to regulate AI while they controlled Congress – and that Democrats would step in to change that.

“Two things will change next term,” Lieu said. “We will hold public hearings on AI. We will pass legislation, reasonable guardrails, on AI.”

Democrats, Lieu said, would specifically take a closer look at guardrails around the building of new datacenters, after the breakneck pace of construction for those facilities drew the bipartisan ire of communities around the country.

That pledge sets Democrats up for a potential showdown with Donald Trump, who has vowed to veto any Democrat legislation and who has harshly criticized the idea of reining in AI development.

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Updated at 19.34 CET

Trump avoids speaking about stunning Republican losses in first public event post-midterms

Donald Trump is addressing members of the press for the first time since Republicans lost control of Congress in a stunning midterm defeat.

The president has yet to mention Democrats flipping seven Senate seats and securing 229 seats in the US house, with more victories expected.

Instead, Trump has focused on speaking about his East Room ballroom project, the new helipad on the White House lawn and his various “beautification” projects around Washington DC.

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Updated at 18.56 CET

Pressed on whether the Democratic House caucus would pursue the impeachment of Donald Trump upon assuming a majority in the chamber, Hakeem Jeffries seemed to downplay the possibility

“I haven’t had a single member of the House Democratic caucus talk to me about impeachment,” Jeffries said to a group of reporters. “We’ve been relentlessly focused on affordability and accountability.”

Still, Jeffries did assert that a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives would assert its authority to rein in the Trump administration.

“The days of the House of Representatives functioning like a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump administration are over. House Democrats are going to lead a Congress that does serve as a check and balance on an out of control executive branch.”

Asked separately whether he would consider investigating or impeaching Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Defense Secretary, Jeffries responded dismissively – “Is Pete Hegseth still around?” – before moving on to the next question.

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Updated at 19.01 CET

Hakeem Jeffries said that neither he nor Chuck Schumer has spoken with Donald Trump since Republicans’ brutal defeat in the 2026 midterm elections.

“I have not heard from President Trump,” Jeffries told a group of reporters. “It is my understanding that leader Schumer has not heard from President Trump.”

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Updated at 18.46 CET

Democrat Christina Bertrand Hines flips red Michigan House district

Democrat Christina Bertrand Hines has flipped the solidly Republican 10th congressional district in Michigan, which is now held by John James – who lost his governor’s race to Democrat Jocelyn Benson.

Bertrand Hines beat her Republican challenger, Michael Bouchard, for control of the district, which a GOP representative has held for more than a decade.

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Updated at 18.57 CET

Hakeem Jeffries: Democrats have been handed a mandate ‘to make life more affordable’

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the House minority leader and soon-to-be speaker of the House, Hakeem Jeffries, characterized the midterm election results as a “stunning rebuke of Maga extremism.”

“Mike Johnson was correct,” Jeffries continued, referencing the now-outgoing Republican House speaker. “The polls were wrong. It wasn’t simply a blue wave, it was an American tsunami.”

In his remarks, Jeffries highlighted what he said would the party’s main priority now that it has control of legislative branch. The American people, Jeffries said, had tasked House Democrats with “a relentless effort to make life more affordable”.

That included, Jeffries said, reversing cuts to Medicaid, extending Affordable Care Act tax credits, undoing Trump’s tariff regime and ending Trump’s “reckless and costly war of choice” with Iran.

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Updated at 18.41 CET

Mississippi US Senate race still on knife’s edge with 96% of votes counted

The US Senate race in Mississippi is still on a knife’s edge, with Democrat Scott Colom leading Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by just 43 votes, with 96% of the final votes counted.

If he’s successful, Colom would be the first Democratic senator that Mississippi has sent to Washington since 1982.

We’ll be keeping an eye on the final result, which would be the eighth Senate flip for Democrats in this astonishing midterm election, and in a state which Donald Trump carried by 22 points in 2024.

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Updated at 18.30 CET