ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei on Wednesday said that Iran inflicted a “POLITICAL DEFEAT” on US President Donald Trump in Washington after the Republicans lost the midterm elections.

“The Iranian nation handed Trump a strategic defeat on the battlefield and in the Hormuz—and a POLITICAL DEFEAT in Washington,” Rezaei wrote on X.

“Meanwhile, Americans got stuck with the bill for his war,” he stated, adding that “anyone who takes on Iran will pay the price—from the battlefield to their own doorstep.”

Millions of Americans went to the polls on Tuesday to vote in the 2026 midterm elections, choosing their members of Congress in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Results that emerged on Wednesday showed that Democrats had won both chambers, ending Republican control of Congress for the remainder of Trump’s presidency, a major setback midway through the president’s second term.

US Vice President JD Vance said in an X post on Wednesday that the reason Republicans lost the elections is the war with Iran, stressing, “The president said so himself last night.”

“Everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there,” he said.

Vance further cited a poll that identified four common reasons why “angry Republicans” planned to switch sides and vote for Democrats: ending the war, focusing on the cost of living, prioritizing the America First policy, and “changing our relationship with Israel.”

On Thursday, US media outlets reported that Vance had written directly to Rezaei intending to restart peace talks between the two sides

Rezaei later said that the "tone" of a letter he received from Vance had “completely changed" compared to earlier diplomatic overtures, adding that he has yet to respond and will not reveal the contents of the letter.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that February's US-Israeli war on Iran was instrumental in hampering Iranian ambitions to produce a nuclear weapon, despite Tehran's insistence that its proliferation efforts were for entirely civilian purposes.