Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Monday that the Iran war has become an incredibly important issue for voters ahead of the November midterms, which are only a few weeks out. “Well, right now, the races are — it's more about — it's, you know, it is affordability issues, it's the price of diesel...
Page A7From§Eachthe early bird edition — 28 September 2026
Thune says the Iran war trumps everything for voters; Trump vows to resume it after they've voted.
As it ran on the front
On September 1st, at a summit in Kyrgyzstan, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran would return to the ceasefire reached in June if Washington returned first to the terms it had already broken. Trump did not return to them. Thirteen days later, on September 14th, the Pentagon's own inspector general put a number on the war's price in property alone: $184 million in damage to U.S. diplomatic facilities across Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. On August 27th, as oil climbed, financial filings showed Trump's own oil holdings climbing with it that same day. Oil now trades above $107 a barrel. U.S. casualties are nearing 900. Eight Marines were wounded in the latest strike. Trump's answer to the ceasefire offer was to reject it and say the bombing resumes after the midterms — his own timeline, his own election.
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters the war has "trumped everything else" for voters heading into November and warned that Republican performance will come down to turnout. The Washington Examiner called it an admission. It reads like one: the leader of the president's own party in the Senate, weeks before an election, naming the unfinished war as the thing his caucus cannot get past.…
…(cont) What Thune did not say is who set the calendar. Trump did. He rejected the return-to-ceasefire terms Pezeshkian offered, said the strikes wait until the votes are counted, and holds oil stock whose value climbs with the same barrel price now above $107. The majority leader is describing the weather. The president wrote the forecast.
There is a name for a war timed to end the week after an election and not the week before it: a campaign decision, made by the one official with the authority to make it, while eight Marines were wounded reaching this point. Thune's warning is the receipt. The bombing schedule is the confession.
“Thune just told you the war is the only thing voters can feel in their gut, and Trump's answer is to keep it running until after they can't do a thing about it at the ballot box. That's not strategy, that's a guy holding oil stock while the barrel price he's riding stays high until the votes are locked in. Follow the calendar, not the polling.”
“Look, Thune's just being straight about the political environment out there, that's what you call leadership — reading the room isn't the same as — okay, admitting the war is swallowing your own party's message three weeks out isn't exactly a talking point, is it. The strike timeline is a national security call, full stop, it has nothing to do with — did I just say full stop? That's not landing the way I wanted it to.”
Earlier in this story
- Trump rejects Iran's ceasefire, pencils in fresh airstrikes for after the midterms. By Sal · the matinee edition, 28 September 2026
- Trump rejects Iran's ceasefire offer, predicts the talks he just rejected will resume this week. By Sal · the coffee break edition, 28 September 2026
- President rejects Iran's offer to end the war; Saudi Arabia's top diplomat meets Rubio, not the press corps. By Sal · the breakfast edition, 28 September 2026
- Trump admits his war won't end by Election Day; Rep. Himes says Iran now controls it. By Chip · the late evening edition, 27 September 2026
- Ambassador confirms Trump offered to sell weapons to the country Trump's own strategy names as the threat By Sal · the early evening edition, 27 September 2026
- Trump rejects Iran's ceasefire, promises doomsday war, then books talks for this week anyway By Chip · the early evening edition, 27 September 2026
The receipts
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Monday acknowledged the war in Iran is shaping tight congressional races nationwide as he warned that the Republican Party’s performance in the midterm election will boil down to voter turnout. Thune’s admission comes as polling shows the Iran war and its impact on the cost of living…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.