Iranian leaders joined Democrats in celebrating Republicans’ heavy losses in the midterm elections, presenting the results as a public rejection of President Donald Trump’s war and its economic fallout.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei wrote on an official English-language account on X that the United States’ decline was accelerating. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has also been Tehran’s lead negotiator in talks with Washington, said Americans had rejected the war, whether out of conscience or concern about the cost of living.
Ghalibaf warned that if the U.S. government ignored voters to serve outside interests, it would face serious consequences. Khamenei’s messages also suggested Iran was not prepared to yield to Washington. He argued that surrender would squander the sacrifices made by Iranians and encourage further attacks.
The comments came after Democrats took control of Congress on Tuesday, dealing Republicans a major setback. The campaign had focused heavily on affordability and the prolonged conflict with Iran, which Trump had repeatedly said was close to ending.
At the start of the attacks earlier this year, Trump predicted the war would last several weeks, perhaps a little more than a month. Instead, it has continued for over eight months.
Iran was not the only concern shaping voters’ decisions, but the war increasingly overlapped with economic anxieties. Rising energy prices pushed up the cost of gasoline and other goods, and pre-election polling found widespread dissatisfaction with the conflict.
Trump acknowledged after the results that the war had played some part in Republican losses, though he continued to defend his decision to launch it. Vice President JD Vance was more direct, writing on X that the war was the reason Republicans lost. He challenged supporters of the conflict to argue that the political cost, including losing the Senate for six years, had been worthwhile.
Other Iranian officials also described the election results as vindication. Deputy Parliament Speaker Ali Nikzad called the Republican losses aftershocks of what he characterized as Trump’s defeat by Iran. An official in President Masoud Pezeshkian’s office said the war and U.S. support for Israel had contributed to a historic Republican defeat.
Trump had initially forecast a short campaign. During the first days of Operation Epic Fury, he repeatedly estimated it would take about four to six weeks and said U.S. forces were well ahead of schedule. U.S. and Israeli strikes killed senior Iranian military figures and damaged Tehran’s military infrastructure.
But starting the war proved easier than bringing it to an end. Iran disrupted commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage that before the conflict carried about a fifth of the world’s oil supply. It also attacked energy infrastructure around the Persian Gulf.
Shipping through the strait nearly stopped during the early weeks of the war, removing millions of barrels of oil from global markets and driving energy prices sharply higher. Iranian strikes also damaged oil and energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Gulf locations. By the end of May, more than 1.1 billion barrels of crude that would normally have reached world markets had been disrupted, according to the International Monetary Fund.
A conflict Trump had described as lasting weeks extended through much of 2026. His administration struggled to secure lasting freedom of navigation in the strait, while Iran retained the ability to threaten commercial shipping and neighboring Gulf states.
The effects were felt by American households. Oil prices jumped after the war began, pushing up gasoline and other consumer costs as Republicans entered an election season already shaped by concerns about affordability.
U.S.-led operations restored much of the shipping traffic through Hormuz by the fall, but oil flows remained below prewar levels, and Iran continued to attack commercial vessels.
The drawn-out conflict also made it harder for Trump to argue that its main goals had been achieved. By October, he disputed that he had promised the entire war would end within four to six weeks, saying the estimate applied only to eliminating Iran’s nuclear threat.
