Iranian leaders have openly mocked Donald Trump after his party suffered sweeping losses in the US midterm elections, framing the results as a popular rejection of American military action in the Middle East.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the parliamentary speaker in Tehran, took to X within hours of the Democrats seizing both chambers of Congress. “Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” he wrote.
Qalibaf, 62, added a sharper warning in the same post: “If the US govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare.”
The Democratic Party claimed victory in numerous swing states, flipping both the House of Representatives and the Senate in an overnight sweep that caught Republicans off guard. The losses came as Trump’s approval ratings remained underwater and voters across the country expressed mounting anxiety over economic pressures tied to the ongoing Iran conflict.
Trump, 78, pushed back against the defeat’s implications in a post on Truth Social. He insisted Republicans would have matched the Democrats’ performance had his name appeared on the ballot.
The president expanded on that claim in an interview. “I feel that I wasn’t on the ballot, and there was nothing that could be done about that,” he said.
Trump struck a conciliatory tone toward his political opponents even as he deflected blame. “My message is, congratulations to the Democrats, and I look forward to working with you for the good of our country,” he told the network.
He added: “I know a lot of Democrats. I have total veto power and I’m sure we’ll be able to work things out.”
The president also turned his fire on Republican candidates themselves. “In some cases they didn’t like the candidates, and in some cases those candidates were not my friend and the base knows that better than anybody,” he said.
He continued: “They stayed back. They didn’t have — I mean, it’s just, it’s sad in the sense that we would have won easily if I was on the ballot. But I wasn’t.”
The midterm fallout unfolded against the backdrop of renewed US-Iran tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. American forces carried out strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island in the days before the election, targeting what officials described as Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps positions after the Guard allegedly targeted a US aircraft. The Biden administration characterized the operation as limited and defensive, though the timing drew scrutiny from observers who questioned whether military action might bolster Republican prospects.
The strikes marked the latest flashpoint in a conflict that has simmered throughout the year, with periodic escalations keeping oil markets volatile and American voters preoccupied with energy costs. Iranian officials have consistently framed US military engagement in the region as a driver of domestic economic pain, a message Qalibaf amplified in his post-election commentary.
Vice President J.D. Vance offered a starkly different analysis of the Republican defeat, posting on social media that the party’s alignment with Trump’s Iran policy had proven politically toxic. Donald Trump Jr. Co-signed that assessment, amplifying the vice president’s critique to his own substantial following. The public break between Vance and the president he serves underscored the Republican Party’s deepening fractures as it processes the scope of Tuesday’s losses.
The Democratic sweep leaves Trump facing a hostile Congress for the final two years of his term, with newly empowered committees likely to intensify oversight of his administration’s foreign policy decisions. The president’s assertion of “total veto power” hinted at the confrontational dynamic ahead, even as his congratulatory message sought to project stability.