Trump says he may finish the Iran war or reach a deal
At a Saturday rally in Cleveland, Ohio, former President Barack Obama urged voters to use the election to rein in the Trump administration. “This election is our last best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration,” he said. The trip was intended to support Sherrod Brown, a former senator seeking to unseat Republican incumbent John Husted, and Amy Acton, who is running for state governor against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy. Obama was also scheduled to campaign in Michigan for Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
Obama framed the race around affordability. He said he sympathized with voters who rejected Democrats in 2024 over economic and inflation concerns following the Covid pandemic, but said Trump had only himself to blame for the current state of the economy. Targeting Trump and his cabinet members, Obama accused the president of not lowering costs for American consumers while waging war against Iran. “If you thought everyone was too expensive before ‘you know who,’ everything is more expensive now,” he said, referring to Trump.
Obama also argued that the election offered a way to restore accountability. “This is a circuit breaker in the system. We need to flip that circuit breaker. We need to start bringing some accountability to this administration,” he said. On Iran, he said the war had given Iran “veto power” over the Strait of Hormuz. Obama said the strait was open to marine traffic before hostilities began in February.
Asked about the Iran war on Saturday afternoon, Trump said: “I’ve done it very effectively and I may have to finish it off, or maybe they’ll make a deal, but I’m not sure. Either way, we win.” Trump has faced significant pressure to lower oil prices, which have jumped because of the wars in Iran and Ukraine. He recently struck a deal with Russia to export the country’s diesel to the US, despite pushback from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were casting advance votes in Florida before Trump was due to leave for Georgia, where he planned a rally for Republican candidates. Asked whether Melania Trump would visit Ukraine, Trump said, “we will see.” The White House had said she “successfully secured” a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky.
At his afternoon rally, Obama also directed a joke about Trump’s renovation of the White House. “What’s with all the gold? He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory,” he joked.
Obama criticized a Ramaswamy campaign advertisement released during the week. The ad featured Acton’s estranged mother calling her a liar but did not mention that the woman’s husband was charged with raping Acton when she was a child. Obama said, “In recent days, we’ve seen there is no line he will not cross. No low he will not sink to to try to get in the limelight,” and added, “I mean, think about this latest ad he ran.”
Acton also spoke at the rally before Obama, arguing that Ramaswamy “has chosen to exploit my childhood” to “save his struggling campaign.”
Early voting was underway for the November 3 midterm elections, which will decide which party controls Congress for the rest of Trump’s presidency. Obama’s Ohio appearance and Trump’s planned Georgia rally were part of the same midterm campaign, with Obama focused on prices and the war and Trump answering questions about the conflict.