Trump says no Iran deal needed after conflict drove GOP's midterm losses

John T. Bennett, CQ-Roll Call on Nov 12, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday shut down his administration’s on-again-off-again talks with Iran, saying he would not seek a deal to formally end the nine-month-old conflict with Tehran.

The possible end of the pursuit of a diplomatic solution came nine days after Trump and congressional Republicans suffered massive losses in the midterm elections. House Democrats will have more than 250 seats come January, and Senate Democrats will have at least 55 seats in the Senate — with Alaska’s competitive race still uncalled.

Polls leading up to Election Day and since have shown that a majority of voters, and a sizable chunk of Trump’s Republican base, felt the Iran conflict was a mistake.

Vice President JD Vance penned a lengthy social media post the day after the election, blaming, in large part, the Iran war for the coast-to-coast Democratic victories. Some GOP lawmakers have also called for an end to the conflict, which drove up fuel and other commodity prices.

“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote the morning after the GOP wipeout. “The president himself said so last night.”

Trump has said that he agrees with Vance’s assessment but that if he had to decide again whether to join Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in striking Iranian targets, he would reach the same conclusion. On Monday, he told reporters that the Iran war “militarily is effectively over.”

Vance had been Trump’s designated top negotiator in the talks with Iran’s remaining leaders, but the president said Thursday on social media that he had ordered his second-in-command to instead “focus his complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States throughout the U.S.”

“We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed,” he added. “We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!”

The situation along the Strait of Hormuz remains contested and dangerous for commercial vessels, including ones that deliver a large amount of the world’s oil products. Iranian officials contend that they control most of the key waterway.

Trump, Vance and other administration officials have said in recent weeks that they were open to continuing talks with Iran, while criticizing Tehran’s negotiating tactics. Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also is Trump’s national security adviser, told reporters that Iran’s latest demands were unreasonable.

Trump’s announcement Thursday could represent his latest way to try assuaging GOP voters, including members of his “Make America Great Again” base. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after the midterms and released Tuesday showed that a majority of Republicans (51%) want Congress to pass legislation that would end the Iran conflict. Overall, 71% of Americans would support such a bill, the survey found.

The conflict was front-and-center during the midterms campaign.

Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers, who lost the Senate race in Michigan to Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, called for the Iran conflict to end “quickly.”

“Michigan families are struggling with the price of everyday life. Groceries cost too much. We have to bring prices down,” Rogers said in one campaign ad.

On Capitol Hill, GOP lawmakers have tried giving Trump cover, while raising some concerns about high gas prices and questioning whether the president and his team have a viable exit strategy.

As the midterms campaign hit the homestretch in late September, two Iowa Republicans in tight races, Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, voted with Democrats on a measure to end the conflict.

“With the negotiating window closed, sustained combat operations now require congressional authorization,” Nunn, an Air Force veteran, wrote on social media. “I will not support another open-ended war.”

Nunn and Miller-Meeks both lost their seats last week, despite breaking with the president over the war.

Trump’s declaration this week of a military end to the Iran war came more than seven years after he offered some foreshadowing during a June 25, 2019, exchange with this CQ Roll Call reporter in the Oval Office.

Asked that day what his exit strategy would be if war ever broke out with Iran, he said: “You’re not going to need an exit strategy. I don’t do exit strategies.”

_____