President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the ongoing conflict with Iran will end when he decides it should, defending his handling of the war during his first press conference with the White House press corps since Democrats won sweeping victories in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Asked when he expects the war to end, Trump spoke to reporters at the site of the White House ballroom construction project, where workers had installed the last piece of structural steel earlier in the day.
“Whenever I want it to, but it’s gotta be done right, and we’re never going to let them have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
The president also agreed with Vice President JD Vance’s assessment that the war contributed to Republicans’ midterm losses. “Well, I think it’s largely true, because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short-term, and… probably it’s true,” Trump said when asked about Vance’s remarks.
He added that he would make the same decision again regardless of the political cost. “But at the same time, if I had to do it 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,” Trump said.
When a reporter asked whether losing control of the Senate was “worth it” given the war, Trump responded, “I do,” and added, “You have no choice.”
“I mean, I thought the oil would go up a lot more, and I did it on that basis. You have no choice. You have to do it. You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon, or everything that you see here someday might not exist,” Trump said.
Voter concerns about both gas prices and the Iran war appear to have shaped Tuesday’s results. A CNN exit poll found that 87 percent of voters surveyed said they were concerned about the cost of gas, with 59 percent describing themselves as “very concerned” and 28 percent as “somewhat concerned.”
The same poll found that 34 percent of voters said the war in Iran was a “crucial” factor in their vote, while another 40 percent called it “a major factor,” suggesting the conflict weighed heavily on the electorate’s decisions even as Trump signaled no change in course.
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