After midterm stinging defeat, Trump is left to weigh his next move in Iran war

Now, if I had to do it again, I'd do it again. That's the clear message from Donald Trump as he faces the difficult questions over whether to change his policies over the war against Iran, over tariffs, over the war in Ukraine, and a whole range of controversial issues being blamed for the Republicans drubbing in the midterms. Most of the blame, though, resting on the war, as for weeks Donald Trump has threatened to return to a full-scale bombardment of Iran after the elections. But now, at least, that appears to be on hold. I think it's largely... True, because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short-term, and probably it's true. But at the same time, if I had to do it again, I'd have to do it again, because long-term, it's the only answer. You can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. Do you feel like it was more good? I do, yeah. I mean, well, you have no choice. I mean, I thought the oil would go up a lot more, and I did it on that basis. You have no choice. You have to do it. You can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. Donald Trump there, well, International Affairs Editor Philip Tilley is with me here on set. Philip, what then is the future now for Donald Trump? Not easy, I think, for him in many domains. There is one thing that I think it needs to be underlined, is that Donald Trump, having lost these elections, or the Republicans having lost control of both houses of Congress, doesn't mean the President is now completely void of all powers within the United States. He can pursue unilateral actions across government. He can also impose spending cuts if he wants to. So that could undermine some of the policies that the Democrats would like to bring into effect when they take power on the 3rd of January. But it's true that Donald Trump has lost power. And also, I think there was a feeling in the United States that the next election campaign has already started. The next presidential election campaign in 2028 started yesterday with the loss. Both houses by the Republican Party and the Democrats now ready to take power in January. There are many questions being raised within the Republican Party itself about what is going to happen next. Who was responsible? There is a blame game that is beginning to start. Donald Trump will never take responsibility for what happened. He's pointing the finger everywhere else, saying it's all their fault. If I'd had my face on the ballot paper, then, of course, we would have had a landslide victory for the Republican Party. But, of course, that wasn't to be. He said that it was also the fault of some of the Republican candidates that have been chosen to run in this election that weren't up to par, even though he had backed many of them himself. And he's also been blaming some of his close advisers for for giving him the wrong information and bad advice about how to run this election campaign. That raises the question about whether some in the Republican Party might actually lose their jobs as a result of this. Susie Wiles, the chief of staff in the White House, she might be one who could face losing her job. There's also many questions being raised about Pete Hegseth. The man who is being blamed as being responsible for the war in Iran, Pete Hegseth being the Secretary of State for Defence in the United States. All of this could take place, but certainly Donald Trump now facing a much more complicated time than he was until these midterm elections came along. I mean, it's pretty obvious, isn't it, Philip, that it may be very difficult for Donald Trump to shape US policy within the US, but his ability to shape world policy... Hasn't changed to the same level, has it? I mean, what might he be planning over the war in Iran? Well, you mentioned in your intro, I don't regret doing it and I would do it again. That is basically the message that Donald Trump has been giving out since learning about the outcome of these midterm elections. He said Iran was a piece of it, referring to the fact that people are angry about rising costs in the United States. But I did the right thing and I would have done it again if I had been confronted with that idea. He's also put forward the plan for a veto. Which you can see from that hat there, which was posted on social media, that if there is any attempt by the Democrats to try to get around his legislation, that is what he's going to do. That is the supreme power that he still has to impose a veto. But he has acknowledged that the war is partly to blame for the Republican defeat. And. He was asked by the Financial Times if he had any plans to launch an attack against Iran. There are rumors that this could also be in the pipeline because Israel is pushing him to launch a final attack while he still can before the Democrats take power in January to try to. Crushed the Iranian regime, saying this would be something that you would be remembered for. It would be part of your legacy. Having got rid of this regime after almost 50 years in power, Donald Trump says he's got no plans to do that, but has said he is locked and loaded or the U.S. is locked and loaded, ready if it has to launch an attack. Iran has replied by saying, well, no, we will retaliate and target energy structures and allies in the region if there is any attack by the United States or Israel. And we've seen this breaking away by J.D. Vance, the U.S. vice president. in a statement that he made yesterday, which is actually quite surprising in the context, which in which he said the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone. The reason we lost is the war and any honest conversation about where we go from here must start here. This is something that was completely impossible for him to say just 48 hours ago, which is a sign that many of the Republican Party are feeling that they are liberated from the hold that Donald Trump has over the party. Having been weakened now by these elections, they feel that it's time to... rebuild the party, to move on from Donald Trump. And J.D. Vance, of course, has his eyes firmly fixed on the next presidential election for which he would like to be the Republican Party candidate. And what about the war in Ukraine, Trump's relations with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin? I mean, how might that play out? Well, very rapidly with the war in Ukraine, Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, has issued a statement saying that... Basically, what the Russians want is for Donald Trump to remain president of the United States and to continue the same policies that he has been undertaking until now. It's business as usual for the Russians because Donald Trump has opened the door to lifting sanctions against the Russians, to buying Russian oil to the detriment of Ukraine. That is something that the Russians are very appreciative of. And Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, has already said in a statement since the elections that he hopes the Democrats arriving in the House of Representatives. Representatives will mean more money for Ukraine from the United States in a bid to help them win the war against the Russians. So I think there is some movement as far as Ukraine is concerned. We'll have to see how this all plays out once the Democrats take power in January. Indeed we will. Philip, thanks very much. Philip Turley, International Affairs Editor there.