Trump: Iran War to End Right After Midterms
US President Donald Trump said on September 13 that the war with Iran will end “probably right after” November’s congressional midterm elections, tying the timeline of an unpopular and costly conflict directly to the US political calendar. Speaking to reporters during a two-day visit to Ireland, Trump also claimed that “oil prices will come tumbling down” once the fighting stops and that Iran “very much wants to reach a deal” — a characterization Tehran has previously rejected.
The remarks, first reported by Xinhua News, mark the third time in under a week that Trump has publicly projected an imminent end to the war. He made a similar claim on September 9 and repeated it in a Fox News interview on September 11, when he declared flatly, “It ends right after the election.”
A Timeline Tied to the Ballot Box
Trump’s framing leaves little doubt that he views the war’s conclusion as a political event as much as a military one. “They’re trying to hold out as long as they can to complicate the election,” he said of Iran, according to the Jerusalem Post, which carried a Reuters dispatch from Dublin. “But I think people are wise to it because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple.”
The US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, 2026, touching off a conflict that has since become a regional crisis. A ceasefire took hold roughly 40 days later, but the US resumed air raids and imposed a naval blockade in July despite a June 17 memorandum of understanding aimed at ending hostilities.
The human and economic toll has mounted. At least 18 US service members and more than 3,000 Iranians have been killed, according to HuffPost. US diesel prices have climbed above $6 a gallon — an average of $6.06, a 60% increase since the war began — while oil briefly pushed past $110 a barrel. Iran has effectively blocked hostile shipping from the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which about one-fifth of the world’s crude normally flows.
‘Take the Oil,’ and Reassurances for Riyadh
Beyond the midterm timeline, Trump raised an alternative scenario that echoed the administration’s recent posture toward Venezuela. “We’ll ultimately pull out,” he said, “unless we decide to stay and take the oil, like in Venezuela.” He claimed US revenue from Venezuela “has already paid for the war many times over” — a reference to an August 2026 oil agreement that sought US control over roughly one-fifth of that country’s reserves, as reported by Guancha.
Trump also addressed a drone attack, launched from Iraq, on Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, a key export route that bypasses Hormuz. He said Iran was “probably” responsible and described a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom he called a “good friend.” “I can just say everything’s going to work out fine and dandy,” Trump said. HuffPost noted that Trump “baselessly claimed Iran was responsible” for the strike.
Separately, Trump said Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis had contacted his administration to signal they did not want direct US involvement, adding that they were “letting most ships go through.”
Public Optimism, Private Doubt
Trump’s confidence in a swift end to the war stands in sharp contrast to the private assessments reportedly circulating inside his own administration. A Wall Street Journal report said senior White House advisers — including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — privately warned Trump that the conflict could continue through the remainder of his term, into January 2029, according to 8world.
The New York Times reported that Vance, who opposed the war from the outset, contacted US military commanders across West Asia, Europe and Asia. Those commanders raised serious concerns about depleted US weapons stocks, with particular alarm over critically low supplies of Patriot interceptors and other missile systems. “Vance came away from some of his conversations with deep concerns about the overall strategy and the prospects for success,” the Times reported, as cited by Press TV.
The vice president’s private doubts dovetail with a public posture Trump has refused to soften. In the September 11 Fox News interview, he rejected any suggestion of second-guessing: “I don’t believe in the word ‘regret.’ You can always question yourself a little bit… If I had to do it again, I would do exactly as I did.”
Political Pressure at Home
The war has become a central liability for Republicans heading into November. Trump’s approval ratings are languishing in the low 30s, driven largely by dissatisfaction with the economy and the conflict. At a Republican midterm convention in Dallas, he pledged a $5,000 “Trump dividend” to every American adult if Republicans retain control of Congress — a proposal Democrats have condemned as an illegal attempt to “bribe” voters and one that could cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion.
Democratic senators have seized on rising fuel costs. “Donald Trump got us into an endless WAR that has caused skyrocketing prices at home while putting our servicemembers in danger abroad,” Senator Chuck Schumer wrote on X. Senator Alex Padilla added: “Trump’s war with Iran sends oil prices soaring. Oil companies rake in the profits. And we pay more at the pump. It’s corrupt.”
What to Watch
Trump has left himself room to maneuver. He said he would accept only the “right deal,” not a “bad deal,” and acknowledged that a negotiated end remains possible — though he framed diplomacy as secondary to the military timeline. His claim that Iran is “constantly calling” for peace has been disputed by Tehran before, and independent verification of the current back-channel remains elusive.
The immediate question is whether the war’s trajectory bends to Trump’s election-season optimism or to the grimmer assessments reportedly shared by his own advisers. With the midterms two months away and fuel prices still near record highs, the gap between the president’s public timeline and the private warnings of his national security team may prove to be the defining tension of the conflict’s next phase.