Trump agrees with Vance that Iran war cost Republicans the midterms

US President Donald Trump has said he does not disagree with Vice President JD Vance's assessment that the Republicans' sweeping midterm losses were caused by the Iran war, rising costs and US relations with Israel. Trump made the remarks in an interview on CBS's '60 Minutes' on Sunday.

Asked whether he knew Vance was planning to share his take in a post on X, Trump said the vice president had been fully transparent with him beforehand.

Trump said, 'He asked me what do I think. I said, you write what you want. By the way, what are you going to write?'

Trump added that the one thing he wished Vance had done differently was to say whether the vice president would have made the decision to strike Iran again, given his role in the administration's decision-making process.

Trump's own answer on that question is an 'emphatic yes'. He said, 'Because you can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon.'

Trump said the administration's decision to engage in war with Iran was far more important than the political consequences of losing the midterm elections. The decision may be unpopular, he argued, but the alternative would have been allowing Tehran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

He said, 'I think, historically, this will be a very good decision. Is it a good decision for today and tomorrow? Maybe not. I have to go with what's right for our country. If they had a nuclear weapon during my term, I would be excoriated far worse than what's happened.'

On Wednesday, Vance delivered a blunt assessment of the Republicans' midterm losses, which allowed Democrats to regain control of both chambers of Congress in a major blow to the Trump administration. Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats and more than two dozen House districts.

Vance wrote on X, 'The real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone. The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.'

Like Trump, Vance argued that the political consequences of the war were a 'worthwhile cost to pay'. He said, '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. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost.'

Both leaders are framing the war decision as bigger than the electoral damage. In their words, even with the losses at the ballot box, the decision to keep Iran from a nuclear weapon was the right one.