President Donald Trump admitted that he “probably went a little too far” with his Iran war as he apologized to a crowd of supporters for wiping out the country’s leaders.
Trump’s deeply unpopular war is one of the most pressing concerns for Americans ahead of the November midterms, along with the cost of living and healthcare, according to recent polling.
The president, who is on a 30-day midterm blitz to galvanize his base ahead of the elections, boasted about the war at his Wednesday rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, a Republican stronghold. He let slip an apology of sorts in his meandering 1-hour and 40-minute speech.
“They have no military. Their navy's gone. Their air force is gone. Their radar is gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. Their leaders are gone,” Trump said. “That's one of the problems. I might have gone too far. I don't know who the hell to deal with.”
The president, 80, continued to brag about how he has taken out the first and second “levels” of Iran’s leaders.
“They made me promise not to take out any more, and I did, I promised them. But nobody wants to be the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he continued.
“Who would like to be the president of Iran? Please raise your hand. No, I don't want to be. So, I probably went a little too far. I’m sorry. Because I don't know who the hell we're dealing with anymore.”
In his speech, Trump claimed that the conflict would “end very soon,” a promise he has made more than 60 times before, according to a tracker by nonprofits Home of the Brave and VoteVets.
Trump’s military operation, launched February 28 and nearing its eighth month, has sent gas prices soaring for Americans at home.
Pollsters predict that affordability issues will hit Trump and the Republicans hard in the midterms, and grim figures from the government this week will likely create a further headache for the GOP.
Wholesale inflation soared to 6.3 percent in September from a year ago, up from 5.6 percent in August and the biggest increase since December 2022, the Labor Department’s producer price index announced Thursday.
American families are falling behind on their bills at a rate not seen since the Great Recession, a Federal Reserve survey also reported this month.
Its survey, of 4,367 families, found that one in five households are behind on a loan payment, and cost of living has increased 39 percent since September 2016. The median household income has increased 13 percent during that same period, according to federal data.
At his rally, Trump said that “radical Dumocrat communists created the affordability problem.”
“We're in the golden age. And despite all of the obstruction from radical left lunatics, our nation is doing better now than it has ever done before, ever,” Trump added.
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