Trump claims he’s in ‘no rush’ to restart Iran bombing on midterm elections eve as unpopular war tanks GOP odds of power: Live updates

Donald Trump shook his head and said ‘no’ when asked if he planned to strike Iran after the midterm elections.

The president’s emphatic response comes amid reports that he is considering resuming the bombing campaign.

The war, which has sent gas prices soaring, is a major issue in the election as voters prepare to cast their ballots on Tuesday.

Trump is considering three courses of action, Axios reported: Make a deal, go back to war, or impose maximum economic penalties.

‘One way or the other, we will do something, but there is no rush. We crippled them financially. They have no money, no gasoline and their people are getting very tired of it,’ Trump told Axios.

Vice President JD Vance is urging Trump to make a deal, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to resume combat.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are advising Trump to maintain the status quo, with economic pressure that will force Iran to make a deal.

Tehran is signaling hopes that the war can be brought to an end.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the diplomatic exchanges ‘have become very intensive.’

Millions of Americans will head to the polls on Tuesday in what is shaping up to be one of the most decisive midterm elections in US history.

Voters will choose in a collective battle for power that might turn America upside down and determine the future of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Read below for everything you need to know about when the polls close, the top races to watch nationwide, and when we can expect overall results.

Donald Trump is set to appear on Shaun Hannity’s show at 9pm Eastern Time on the night before the election, the president announced on Truth Social.

Source: @realDonaldTrump/TruthSocial

Donald Trump has revealed his coping mechanism ahead of a possible ‘blue tsunami’ at the polls.

The President suggested that he will attempt to block Democrats in Congress if they win the November 3 midterms as predicted.

He told Fox News on Sunday: ‘If that happens, I guess I’ll become Mr. Veto. And then at some point, we’ll probably make deals.’

For this week’s DC Insider poll, we want to know what you think of Trump’s proposed tactics.

Donations to Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed surged after his own party member Haley Stevens backstabbed the Democrat in a shock move on Sunday.

El-Sayed’s campaign reported Monday it raised more than $2.4 million since Stevens’s last-minute betrayal as she announced to endorse his GOP opponent Mike Rogers.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took his upset to social media after Democrat Haley Stevens endorsed Michigan GOP Senate candidate Roger Stevens in a shock move on Sunday.

‘Working class people’s lives are on the ballot on Tuesday—their healthcare, their rent, their bills,’ Mamdani said in an X post.

‘Haley Stevens just betrayed them by endorsing the very Republican she said she wanted to run against.’

Democrat Mary Peltola, who is running for Alaska’s Senate seat, is known for her expletive-ridden rants.

Nine former Peltola staffers dished dirt on their old boss and painted a picture of her as prone to anger in late September.

But while GOP incumbent Dan Sullivan has tried to leverage Peltola’s outbursts to boost his own re-election bid, Alaskans appear unbothered by her rough rhetoric in a midterm battle that could determine control of Congress.

Trump used his final public remarks to US voters on the eve of the 2026 midterm elections to focus not on the competitive congressional map, where down-ballot Republicans are staring down razor-thin margins and threats of a ‘blue wave’ – but on the renovations he made to the Lincoln Reflecting Pool.

For roughly 20 minutes of his address Monday – Trump delved into the finer points of his DC pet project, one of several sites he’s targeted for renovation in the nation’s capital.

He touted the dimensions of the Lincoln Reflecting Pool – ‘the largest in the world, almost as tall as two Empire State buildings laid on its side’; its re-grassing and top soil – ‘That’s a big deal, re-grassing’ – and detailed, at length, the specific shade of blue chosen to repaint the bottom of the Reflecting Pool.

‘They call it American black-blue, but it’s very dark,’ Trump said, to a small group of attendees massed around the podium.

‘And if you had a regular blue – like, I personally love the lighter color blue – but then you wouldn’t have any reflection. It wouldn’t be reflective anymore.’

Trump lamented the so-called vandalism he has said is responsible for the peeling at the site, and the vandals he claimed, without evidence, had ‘slashed the hell’ out of the pool.

It’s ‘a really a beautiful thing,’ Trump said, standing in front of the newly repainted, black-blue pool.

‘It’s a work of art in many way – but it was a work of art that never worked. But now, it will work.’

The audience – made up largely of staff and park service rangers – responded by way of muted applause.

Trump used portions of his final speech to voters on the eve of the midterm elections to shore up support for Republicans in competitive down-ballot races across the country – including Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, whom Trump accused of having ties to a mosque that allegedly calls the United State the ‘House of Satan.’

Trump cited a recent report that alleged that El Sayed qualified for the ballot by ‘campaigning and soliciting signatures at radical mosques’ that ‘called the United States the House of Satan.’

‘They call it the House of Satan,’ Trump said. ‘And we changed that. We call the United States the House of God.’

Trump spent little time during his remarks Monday focusing on the elections themselves, opting to spend the bulk of the public address on the renovations he had ordered be made to the Lincoln Reflecting Pool.

During Donald Trump’s Monday address at the DC reflecting pool, the president was speaking only to a small group of about 60 people: staff and park service rangers.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was present for the event as well as Kevin J Lilly, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks.

Trump delivered his final message to voters ahead of the November 3 midterm elections at a familiar site in the nation’s capital – the Lincoln Reflecting Pool.

The president joked at the outset of his remarks that the Reflecting Pool might be renamed after him, before clarifying that he was joking.

‘Don’t report that,’ he laughed.

Much of the remarks so far have been about the president’s renovations to the Reflecting Pool, rather than tomorrow’s midterm elections, or any of the competitive down-ballot races GOP candidates are facing across the country.

President Trump’s latest approval ratings could serve as an indicator of which way the midterm elections are headed.

A new Morning Consult poll found that 56 percent of voters disapprove of the President’s performance, compared with just 41 percent who approve.

That leaves Trump with a net approval rating of -15 points, his weakest standing since returning to the White House and ever in his two terms.

Republicans are also showing signs of growing dissatisfaction with their own party.

Just 68 percent of Republican voters believe their party is headed in the right direction, down from 73 percent four weeks earlier and 82 percent in the opening months of 2025.