Trump lauds Dems’ win, says his Iran War a factor
Washington—United States President Donald Trump had rare praise for rival Democrats on Tuesday after their stunning midterm elections victory and admitted the Iran war may have played a part in the defeat of his Republican Party.
But the 80-year-old refused to take any personal responsibility for the result that upends the final two years of his presidency, instead trying to shift the blame to his fellow Republicans.
“Well, I say this: congratulations to the Democrats. They did a good job,” Trump said in a telephone interview with FOX News Democracy 26.
“They’ve been looking for this one for 11 years, and they finally got it. But I don’t view it as a hit on me.”
The complimentary comments were highly unusual for Trump, who spent much of the midterms campaign branding Democrats as everything from communists to Islamists.
Trump also reiterated that, unlike his 2020 presidential election loss, he accepted the vote results and was ready to work with Democrats now that they will control Congress.
“I can work with them on many things,” Trump said.
At the same time, Trump warned he was ready to use his executive power to veto any Democratic legislation he felt like.
“They can send over, you know, 50 different great bills that they’re all excited about, and I send them back with a nice stamp—’veto.’”
Iran factor
With polls showing the Iran war and resulting rise in oil prices was vastly unpopular with voters, Trump also acknowledged that the stalled conflict had contributed to the result.
“I think a part of it was Iran, but at the same time, people understood the importance of what I’ve done with Iran,” Trump told Fox.
Yet Trump’s conciliatory tone did not extend to his own party.
Time and again on the campaign trail, he told Republicans to “pretend I’m on the ballot.” But on Tuesday he insisted that the opposite was the problem.
“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
‘Buckle up’
Trump posted later that he was going to “become a political pundit” and give the reasons why Republicans lost.
First in his crosshairs was Greg Abbott, the loyal Texas governor unseated by Democrat Gina Hinojosa. Trump said that if Abbott hadn’t become a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only) “he wouldn’t have lost.”
Many of them Trump had hand-picked and traveled across the country to rally support for—even lavishing praise, in one case, on the “ass” of Republican Ohio Senate candidate Jon Husted.
But the White House also called the quality of the Republicans into question.
“Candidate quality matters, and President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves,” a White House official said.
