US President Donald Trump on Wednesday acknowledged that the Iran war was the key factor in his party's sweeping midterm election losses, after Vice President JD Vance urged Republicans to be "honest" about the unpopular conflict's impact.
Asked if he agreed with Vance's remark that the Iran was "the reason we lost," Trump, speaking to reporters at his White House ballroom construction site, said: "I think it's largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short term."
"But at the same time, if I had it to do again, I'd have to do it again. Because long term, it's the only answer. You can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon," he added.
Vice President JD Vance, often eyed as Trump's likely successor at the White House, blamed the president's war in Iran for Republicans' midterm wipeout.
The president had no public events on his schedule originally, but called reporters together at the last minute. He also briefly took questions, insisting, “If I were on the ballot I would have won.”
He spoke at length about his new White House ballroom, delivering his first public remarks since the midterm election rout of his Republican Party from the construction site.
"It's going to be not only one of the biggest, but it'll be the most beautiful ballroom I think anywhere in the world," Trump told reporters -- without initially talking about the midterms in which Democrats swept Congress.
Meanwhile, Trump ruled out firing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth despite suffering bruising midterm election losses that the US president has blamed on the war against Iran.
"No, I think he's doing a very good job," Trump said when asked if he was considering replacing Hegseth, a staunch proponent of military action against the Islamic republic.
Trump further said that if the Democrats were to launch an effort to impeach him when they take control of Congress next year, it would "destroy" their party.
Asked about prospective impeachment a day after his Republican Party suffered a sweeping midterm election loss, Trump said: "I think it would destroy the Democrat Party if they did that," insisting there was "no reason" for him to be impeached.
Trump usually blames anyone and everyone but himself
Trump has a long history of passing the buck, on issues large and small, but especially when there are ballot-box failures.
After Republicans lost the House in the 2018 midterms during Trump's first term, he blamed defeated members of his own party.
Utah Rep. Mia Love, who had tried to distance herself from him, “gave me no love, but then she lost. Too bad," the president said.
He mocked other losing lawmakers for not embracing him — Florida's Carlos Curbelo, Colorado's Mike Coffman, Virginia's Barbara Comstock, and Illinois' Peter Roskam — with the same words he would use eight years later: “My name wasn’t on the ballot."
Now he's trying to deflect blame once more, despite having urged voters to “pretend I’m on the ballot.”
An Associated Press analysis of the 39 Trump speeches and rallies Trump staged since Sept. 1 showed the president used a version of the phrase in 30 of them. In some addresses he returned to the subject more than once, though, meaning there were at least 40 instances where he appealed to voters to engage in that bit of make-believe.
(With inputs from AFP, AP)