60 Minutes Transcript: Donald Trump on Midterm Loss, War, Gas
President Donald Trump told 60 Minutes in his first interview since the midterms that he was not on the ballot, that voters disliked the war and higher gasoline prices, and that he does not disagree with JD Vance's view that the Iran war cost Republicans.
President Donald Trump said in a 60 Minutes interview that Republicans lost the midterm elections partly because voters disliked the war and higher gasoline prices, according to the transcript of his first sit-down interview since the vote.
The loss was sweeping. Republicans gave up the House and the Senate, plus statewide offices in red states from Texas to Kansas to South Carolina that Democrats had not won in decades, according to 60 Minutes.
Interviewer Ross Douthat noted that Trump has met past defeats with claims of fraud and the effort to overturn the 2020 election. This time, 60 Minutes said, it found him in a "surprisingly reflective mood" and seemingly accepting of defeat. The interview took place at the White House.
Trump's explanation
Trump opened by pointing out he was not on the ballot. He said he campaigned hard and drew massive rallies, but that those voters were then asked to back candidates they did not like.
"They didn't like the war. They didn't like the fact that gasoline went up," Trump said. He also cited what he called a "great dislike, incredibly, for Israel."
Douthat pressed him on the candidates. Trump had endorsed Ken Paxton in Texas and a candidate the transcript names as Darline Graham in South Carolina, and both had a hard time.
Trump replied that Senator John Cornyn "would've lost also." He said he won South Carolina and Texas by the highest vote in history. He added that he endorsed the Florida candidates, who he said would not have won without him.
Asked why his appeal did not transfer, Trump said: "I think they didn't vote, really. I think in some cases, they didn't like the candidates."
Vance and the Iran war
Douthat then raised a social media post by Vice President JD Vance, who wrote that the reason Republicans lost was the war, meaning Iran. The post also made comments about Israel.
Asked whether he agreed with that analysis, Trump said, "I don't disagree with it." He said Vance asked him what he thought, and he told the vice president to write what he wanted.
The wide-ranging conversation also covered immigration and corruption, Iran and artificial intelligence, Trump's potential successors and his own mortality, 60 Minutes said.
