President Donald Trump said in an interview aired on Sunday that he doesn’t disagree with Vice President JD Vance’s assessment that the Iran war helped fuel Republican losses in last week’s elections.
A day after the midterms, Vance issued a statement on X saying that the war, the U.S. government’s relationship with Israel, the high cost of living and inflation, and the lack of “America first” policies were reasons for the losses incurred by the GOP.
When asked about Vance’s statement during a “60 Minutes” interview with Ross Douthat, Trump said, “I don’t disagree with it.”
Also in the interview, Trump said he believes the U.S. war with Iran, which the U.S. launched in February alongside Israel, was needed to degrade Iran’s capacity to obtain nuclear weapons.
“The only thing I wish he would’ve said there, if he felt it, and you’d have to ask him about that, but if you had to do it again, would you do it? You know, he’s part of a decision-making process. And my answer is an emphatic yes because you can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
“I think, historically, this will be a very good decision. Is it a good decision for today and tomorrow? Maybe not. But you know, 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.”
Trump added in the interview that his actions against Iran stopped its regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Congress returned to a changed Washington on Monday, with Democrats netting a significant number of seats in both the House and Senate. But Trump said Sunday that he believes he will make a comeback and argued that the U.S. economy has performed better under his watch.
“America took a giant step back in History with the results of the last Election—Even the Stock Market, which has been a ‘ROCKETSHIP’ under ‘TRUMP,’ took a one day, 3 Trillion Dollar loss. But have no fear, we will be back, BIGGER AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!” he said in a Truth Social post.
After a strong jobs report last Friday showed employers adding 165,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dipping to 4.1 percent, the president also said it signaled more gains while he’s still in charge.
“Democrats may control Congress, but I will NEVER stop fighting for you, and I will VETO anything that hurts America,” he said in a message to his supporters.
In the “60 Minutes” interview, the president said he thinks his administration may have been too aggressive on deportations. “I think it might be too tough, yeah,” he told Douthat at one point.
He added that he thinks he could reach an agreement with the new Democratic majority on immigration.
“The deal would be we would work something out. And I think it’s something; I think that’s something that’s actually doable,” he said in the interview.
Trump did not detail what such a deal might look like.
Last week, the president named Stephen Miller, a key architect of his immigration agenda, as his new chief of staff. Miller is replacing former chief of staff Susie Wiles, who was Trump’s co-campaign manager during his 2024 run.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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