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As Trump Threatens to ‘Destroy the Rest of’ Iran, Top Democrat Vows Ending War Will Be One of ‘First Things We Do’
Smith said he expects Democrats will pursue a bill that forbids any further funding for the conflict, which the Pentagon says has cost over $47 billion, though independent estimates put the cost much higher.
A bill of this sort, Smith said, would almost certainly be vetoed by Trump, meaning Republicans in both chambers would need to provide enough votes to override his veto.
Overwhelming opposition to the Iran War, which has dragged on without an end in sight and caused inflation to surge, played a central role in the electoral beatdown Republicans suffered on Tuesday. Nationwide, 63% of voters said launching the war was the "wrong decision," according to an NBC News exit poll. Among those voters, 82% favored Democrats.
Nearly three-quarters of voters (74%) said that the war was a "crucial or major" factor in their vote, and 63% of them said they chose Democrats.
But even as members of his party, including Vice President JD Vance, state plainly that "the reason we lost is the war," Trump has continued to defend it and suggested he may pursue deeper intervention.
"I would rather not destroy the rest of the country if possible, but maybe I'll have to," he told reporters in the Oval Office. "You'll know soon enough."
Trump has made similar threats to "annihilate" Iran, "blow up" the country, and eradicate the "whole civilization" for months. But now that the midterms are over, there are fewer political pressures holding him back from following through on these threats.
The administration reportedly has plans drawn up for a renewed, large-scale bombing campaign that could target the country's energy infrastructure, military installations, and nuclear facilities, possibly with Israeli participation. Last month, it was reported that Trump was mulling dropping "the mother of all bombs," the largest nonnuclear bomb in the American arsenal, on Iran, which poses the risk of massive civilian casualties.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who received a classified briefing about the plans days before the midterms, called them "insane" and said they involved deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in violation of international law.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), the only Iranian American Democrat in the US Congress, said that Trump's renewed threats on Thursday only increase the urgency of ending the war.
"He’s once again threatening the annihilation of a country of 90 million people," Ansari wrote on social media. "A crime against humanity. Democrats must work urgently to end Trump’s reckless war of choice when we take back the House and the Senate. Enough is enough."
A "flurry of diplomatic activity" has followed the midterms, according to reporting by Axios' Barak Ravid. Iranian negotiators have spoken with regional mediators about a possible deal for the US to lift its naval blockade and release some of Iran’s frozen funds in exchange for nuclear talks and an end to Iran's travel restrictions through the Strait of Hormuz.
According to the same report, US Central Command was "finalizing preparations" to restart major combat operations in Iran, though there has not been an official directive from Washington.
"The American people delivered a clear mandate to end the illegal war on Iran," said the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) on Thursday. "Trump instead suggests he may escalate the war and commit war crimes to 'destroy the rest of' Iran. This is outrageous and unacceptable."
"Congress," it said, "must cut off funding for this war NOW."
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth before speaking at Anduril Industries in Sparrows Point, Maryland, on October 6, 2026. (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Democrats may have opportunities to push for the end of the war before January.
Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.), the leading Republican critic of the war, whom Trump helped to defeat in his primary earlier this year, has said he plans to force a vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth next week for violating the war powers resolution passed by Congress.
"By every estimation, it will pass and he will be impeached," Smith said. "And off that goes to the Senate. Then the Senate is legally required to spend all of their time dealing with that until it’s done with."
Still, it remains an open question whether the necessary two-thirds of senators would vote to remove Hegseth and whether the pressure could meaningfully affect the war.
Another chance to stop the war will come on December 11, when Congress will need to approve another spending measure to prevent a government shutdown.
According to Roll Call, the progressive advocacy group Indivisible sent a memo on Thursday pushing Democrats to block a National Defense Authorization Act and refuse to fund the Pentagon if “it doesn’t cut off money for the war.”
“Voters have granted Democrats majorities in the House and Senate with a clear mandate: End this war," said Jamal Abdi, the president of NIAC. "The first test of the Democrats’ commitment to that mandate will be when Congress takes up legislation to fund the government before funding runs out on December 11."
"After having won Congress thanks to a massively unpopular war," he said, "the best way to squander this momentum would be for Democrats to turn around and provide funding for the president to continue the conflict."
Post-Midterms Report Stresses Economic Populism Propelled Democrats to Victory
"When swing voters were asked which issue they consider most when deciding whom to vote for, a clear plurality (41%) said the economy, jobs, and the cost of living," the publication says, citing surveys conducted in September and October. "Among that plurality of swing voters, about 3 in 4 (76%) said 'inflation or the cost of living' best explained why the economy was their top issue."
"When asked which political party they trust more to handle inflation and the cost of living, 34% of swing voters said the Democratic Party, while 19% said the Republican Party... A plurality (47%) said they don't know which party they trust more," the report notes. "Democrats also carried a large trust advantage on healthcare (+29) and programs like Social Security and Medicare (+23)," but "at least 40% of swing voters said they didn't know which party they trust more on nearly every issue tested."
Reiterating that lack of trust in both major parties, large majorities of swing voters also said they don't think that either Democrats or Republicans "have a solution for the cost of living." However, over 70% specifically said they don't think GOP President Donald Trump, who returned to power last year after losing reelection in 2020, has a solution.
Since Trump's second inauguration, he has been intensely criticized for enriching his family and wealthy allies while driving up costs for the public with his key policies, including sweeping tariffs, a deadly crackdown on immigrants, and the ongoing illegal war on Iran. Faced with soaring prices for everything from gasoline and groceries to healthcare and housing, voters on Tuesday ousted enough of Trump's fellow Republicans to give Democrats majorities in both chambers of Congress.
Key wins that helped Democrats secure the US Senate occurred in Maine, Michigan, and Texas, which elected Troy Jackson, Abdul El-Sayed, and James Talarico, respectively. Data for Progress surveyed likely voters in all three states in the weeks before the election and found that the economy and cost of living were most important to them, followed by government corruption.
Voters in these three states trusted Democrats over Republicans on cost of living, and also expressed significant support for a range of progressive policies, including higher taxes on millionaires, a $15 minimum wage, a pause on construction of artificial intelligence data centers, making fossil fuel giants pay for climate disasters, creating a Medicare for All healthcare system, and ending military aid to Israel.
While some Democratic leaders and consultants have argued that the party's candidates need to embrace "moderate" platforms to get elected—particularly in districts or states previously won by Trump—Data for Progress found that this cycle, voters "associated Democrats with an economic populist platform" and "the more centrist messages registered far less."
As for Republicans, likely voters believed congressional candidates would "mostly support" the president's agenda if elected, and residents of Maine, Michigan, and Texas similarly thought the party's Senate candidates "would mostly follow Trump's lead." Majorities said that the president hasn't kept key campaign promises, including gasoline below $2, no more wars, ending inflation, cutting electricity prices in half, eradicating veteran homelessness, and capping credit card interest rates.
During Republicans' federal trifecta over the past nearly two years, their biggest legislative "accomplishment" was passing the 2025 budget package they dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). The Data for Progress report points out that with Trump's popularity tanking, some GOP candidates tried to focus on that law—but "the argument wasn't convincing."
"When asked if Republican claims that their tax cuts had helped working families were mostly true or false, a majority (61%) said false," the document details. "In the days ahead of the election, a majority of voters (54%), including 61% of independents, also said wealthy people and large corporations benefited most from the bill's tax cuts."
When voters were asked which Trump administration policies concerned them most, passage of the OBBBA ranked second, only behind the Iran War. Other top issues included directing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to conduct mass deportations, the tariff regime, Trump promoting his family's cryptocurrency and enriching properties like Mar-a-Lago, and the Department of Justice withholding files about his dead former friend, sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, while probing the president's political enemies.
Political advertisements attacking Democrats that caught the attention of voters this round often focused on socialism, immigration, and transgender girls and women participating in sports. The report says that the GOP's "focus on culture war issues—and on attacking transgender people specifically—was misaligned with what voters wanted to hear from their candidates."
A majority of all voters told Data for Progress that they wanted candidates to talk more about food prices, fuel prices, healthcare costs, and political corruption—topics that have long been key focuses of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democrats and ran for the party's presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. In the wake of the "blue tsunami," as some have described Tuesday's results, Sanders has been widely recognized for his impact on the Democratic Party and its priorities over the past decade.
"The Bernie Sanders economic playbook is now mainstream in the Democratic Party—the data is clear that economic populism was central to these historic election results," Data for Progress executive director Ryan O'Donnell said in a statement about the group's new report.
"Candidates across the country made fighting billionaires, elites, and corporations the centerpiece of their campaigns, successfully connecting affordability and anti-corruption," he continued. "But while swing voters strongly rejected Trump and the Republican Party's handling of the cost of living, our data underscores that they are not yet convinced Democrats have a solution either. This gap presents both a risk and an opportunity."
"Data for Progress has found that voters' trust in the Democratic Party increases after hearing it supports anti-corruption and economic populist policies," he added. "Americans are hungry for leadership that challenges the status quo, ends America's forever wars, and takes on entrenched wealth and corporate power."
Sanders himself argued after the midterms that the job of the new Democratic majorities in Congress "is to represent where working families are." Citing a poll that found "well over 60% of the American people want Medicare for All," the senator proposed passing his longtime healthcare policy—and said that "if Trump wants to veto it, that's his constitutional right."
Medicare for All is just part of what many progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups want Democrats to take on in the next two years, whether or not the White House fights back. Other priorities include a federal wealth tax, ending the Iran War, and possibly even impeaching Trump a third time.
While the New York Democrats who currently lead the party in the Senate and House of Representatives, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, may become majority leader and speaker in January, progressives have emphasized that "we need commitments" from them, as Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) put it, because "it's not a time for incrementalism. It's a time to move forward a very bold kitchen table agenda."
US Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) similarly stressed in a post-election op-ed that "now, Democrats must deliver," and the party should force Trump "to do that on the affordability and corruption issues that drove this election—or call his bluff."
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