Iran’s leaders celebrated Republican midterm losses Wednesday, casting Democrats’ takeover of Congress as a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s military campaign while issuing new threats against Washington, Slay News reports.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X that, whether out of “conscience or the cost of living,” Americans said “NO TO WAR,” and that Tehran endorsed the message. “If the US govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare,” he wrote.
The comments came as Iranian forces remained on high alert amid the confrontation with U.S. forces over the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state media amplified the message, with state-run IRNA announcing a “heavy defeat for Trump and his supporters,” and the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency running the headline “War on Iran Emerges As Major Factor in Republicans’ Midterm Defeat.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei gave no sign that Democratic gains would soften Tehran’s stance. In a statement carried by state media, he said anyone hoping U.S. behavior could change “through party or factional shifts,” or that concessions could end its hostility, is “gravely mistaken.” He added, “The US sees the end of its hegemony as distant; we see it as near.”
Trita Parsi, co-founder of the Quincy Institute, also framed the results as a win for Tehran. “The Democrats didn’t win the midterms,” Parsi wrote on social media. “Iran did.”
Trump acknowledged that the conflict contributed to Republican losses but stood by his decision. He told Fox News that Iran was “part of” the reason for the results and said he had “no choice” because of the need to stop the regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He separately told Politico he remained “totally convinced” the decision was right for the long term.
