Iranian Leaders Hail Democrats' 2026 Gains as 8-Month War Batters Trump

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Nov 4

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and other Iranian leaders celebrated Republicans’ midterm losses as a public rejection of Trump’s war, with Khamenei saying the “collapse” of the U.S. had accelerated.
The reaction followed Democrats’ seizure of Congress after a campaign dominated by affordability and a war Trump had predicted would last four to six weeks but that has stretched beyond eight months.
That conflict drove up energy costs by disrupting the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of global oil before the war; the IMF said more than 1.1 billion barrels had been knocked from normal market flows by late May.
Trump said Iran “partly” caused the Republican defeat, while Vice President JD Vance was blunter, writing that “the reason we lost is the war.”
Tehran’s messaging also signaled a harder line ahead, with Khamenei warning against any “submission” to the U.S. and suggesting Iran would resist rather than negotiate.