Despite acknowledging the Iran war was partially to blame for Republican losses, Trump said he didn't regret launching it.
Page F134From§Eachthe morning edition — 4 November 2026
Trump has no regrets about the Iran war that just cost his party both chambers of Congress
As it ran on the front
On August 31st, after Iran and the United States traded strikes, the President told a reporter the response would be "hard." On November 3rd, the day before Americans voted, the White House called the war "over" and could not say, when a reporter asked, which day the strikes had stopped. The same morning, he congratulated the Democrats who now hold both chambers, said they'd "done a good job," allowed the war "may have played a part," and declined, in the same sentence, to take personal responsibility for the result.
Run the filing against the table. The table says a war invoiced as finished one day posted a measurable loss to his own column two days later. That is not a timeline error, hon. A company that tells shareholders the plant is closed, then reports the plant's third-quarter loss, has not misplaced an invoice; it has priced the thing it said didn't exist. The price here is a chamber. Two chambers. The House and the Senate, both entries, both dated, both attributed by the same man who signed for them to the same operation he had told the country, one day earlier, had already stopped.…
…(cont) The record establishes that Republicans no longer hold either chamber. What the record does not establish is the one number that actually matters here: how much of that loss belongs to the war. The President put a word on it — "partial." He did not put a figure on it. An accountant asked to book a loss as "partial responsibility" with no percentage attached gets the file sent back, which is what happened to him twice inside a week: once when reporters asked when the strikes stopped, once when they asked what they cost him, and both times he answered with a word instead of a number.
Across the wire, in Tehran, officials who had pledged not to build a weapon began making the public case for building one — not because the war ended, but because nobody in Washington could tell them when it had. A filing you cannot close stays open for everyone reading it, including the people deciding what to build next.
“They told you the war was over because they needed Election Day to come and go quiet, and the second the polls closed, he's on camera admitting it cost his own party the House and the Senate. That's not an apology, that's a receipt he signed two days too late to matter to a single vote cast. Next time they tell you something's over, ask them what day it ended, because he couldn't answer that one either.”
“The war's over, he said so himself — that's the policy position, that's not — okay, he also said he doesn't regret it, which, functionally, if you don't regret a thing, that means it worked, so. And "partially responsible" for the midterms isn't an admission, it's a percentage, and percentages are just math, nobody's fault is math — wait, did they lose both chambers? Both? I didn't say both.”
Earlier in this story
- Republican Party's midterm closing argument becomes pool algae on Election Day. By Ruth · the evening edition, 3 November 2026
- Trump announces $4 billion Israel aid cut with no consultation, calls the surprise a months-old plan. By The Lodgers · the evening edition, 3 November 2026
- White House declares Iran war 'over,' can't say when it stopped striking Iran. By Lou · the evening edition, 3 November 2026
- White House rules out Iran strikes before the midterms, authorizes one the night before. By Ruth · the evening edition, 3 November 2026
- Trump's closing argument before Americans vote: a $14 million pool and a joke about naming it after himself. By Ruth · the evening edition, 2 November 2026
- Iran cuts its Strait deadline from seven days to two, leaving the president's 41-day-old 'very soon' untouched. By Ruth · the morning edition, 2 November 2026
The receipts
US President Donald Trump said rival Democrats had done "a good job" Tuesday after they gained control of Congress in the midterm elections. While Trump acknowledged that the Iran war may have played a part in the defeat of his Republican Party, he did not take personal responsability for the result that will upend the last two years of…
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.