Democrats have taken control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the US midterm elections held on November 3, a heavy defeat for President Donald Trump’s Republican Party.
Vice President JD Vance put the loss down to the war with Iran in a long social media post on Wednesday. He said a number of people who had voted for Trump in 2024 backed Democrats this time. Vance named the war, inflation and the cost of living, a push to refocus on the America First approach, and the US relationship with Israel as the issues on voters’ minds. He also asked whether the military action had justified the loss of both chambers.
Trump conceded that the war had hurt his party, pointing partly to dearer fuel. He still maintained that keeping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon mattered more than the damage at the polls.
Iran’s response
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf ridiculed Vance’s remarks and said Americans had voted against war. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Washington’s hostility towards Tehran would persist whoever holds power there, and cautioned that fresh attacks on Iran would enlarge the conflict. Iran’s embassy in India also put out an AI-generated video on X that mocks Trump.
The war began on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran. Tehran answered by targeting American military installations around the Gulf and blocking shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which has lifted oil and petrol prices.
Markets
International Brent crude fell 8.7 per cent on Wednesday to 94.62 dollars a barrel, as traders expected the result to increase pressure on Washington to seek an end to the fighting. Prices were broadly steady by Thursday afternoon.
Natalia Catona, an energy analyst based in Abu Dhabi, warned against excess optimism. She said Democrats, who take office on January 3, may start asking hard questions and make fresh military funding harder to secure. Until then, she said, Trump can still step up pressure, and she saw no reason to expect more caution from him this time.
In Chennai, ornamental gold rose by 2,280 rupees per sovereign after the election, and by 4,680 rupees over two days. It now sells at 1,07,080 rupees per sovereign. Silver, which had gone up by 10,000 rupees per kilogram a day earlier, was unchanged at 2.10 lakh rupees per kilogram.
