US President Donald Trump has given his latest predictions for an end to the Iran war, suggesting the end date could come after the upcoming US midterm elections.
“This war will end soon after the election,” President Trump told reporters Wednesday before boarding Air Force One for a trip to Dallas, Texas.
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President Trump claimed that the Iranian government was delaying the end of the war to ensure a more favorable political environment for the United States.
Democrats are aiming to take control of one or both chambers of Congress in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Currently, President Trump’s Republican Party maintains a slim majority in both parties.
Regarding Iran’s strategy in the parliamentary elections, President Trump said, “They’re trying really hard to influence the elections so we can get good people who are vulnerable to participate in the elections.”
He suggested that Iran expects Democrats to “leave them alone and let them have nuclear weapons.”
President Trump said of Iran: “All they want is nuclear weapons. If they had nuclear weapons, the whole world would be in serious trouble.”
“More than a nuclear deal”
When war with Iran began on February 28, the United States and Israel cited the country’s nuclear program as a key justification for initiating hostilities. President Trump and his officials have claimed that Iran poses an “imminent” threat to the United States and its allies.
However, Iran has long denied developing nuclear weapons and insists that enriching uranium is only for the purposes of civilian power.
The US intelligence report also casts doubt on whether Iran was building a nuclear weapon, raising concerns about its level of enrichment.
Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear energy program were ongoing at the start of the war, and the issue has come up repeatedly in the six-month ceasefire talks since then.
President Trump previously withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which limited the amount of uranium that Iran could enrich.
Asked Wednesday whether the U.S. would resume talks on the nuclear deal with Iran, the president suggested his ambitions were larger.
President Trump said, “I’m doing more than the nuclear deal. There’s more than the nuclear deal.”
However, he also expressed the belief that negotiations with Iran are not a top priority for the US government.
“To be honest with you, we’re not asking for that,” Trump said. “Originally, I wanted to make a deal. We are a long way off. Now they have very few countries left.”
Further strikes by the US are planned
President Trump’s comments follow U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s statement to ABC News on Sunday that the nuclear deal “may not exist.”
Mr. Wright instead suggested that the United States could continue attacks to weaken Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
The United States has already targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025. At the time, President Trump said those attacks had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program.
Negotiations with Iran have stalled in recent months, with the Trump administration continuing to downplay the conflict ahead of the midterm elections.
The war is widely unpopular in the United States. In a poll last month, only 31% of Americans supported conflict, down from 37% in March.
Oil prices rose by more than $100 a barrel on Wednesday amid renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran, threatening to further increase costs for consumers around the world.
The US military said on Tuesday it had attacked five Iranian tankers in response to an attempted missile attack on a US Navy warship.
On Wednesday, President Trump said more U.S. airstrikes would follow, saying “more is coming.”
