The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has admitted in an interview given to the CBS network that public dissatisfaction with the military intervention in Iran, the increase in the price of fuel, and the economic difficulties of day-to-day life were behind the setback suffered by the Republican Party in the midterm legislative elections held last Tuesday.
After analyzing the results, the president has pointed out that a significant part of the electorate "didn't like the war" or the higher cost of fuel stemming from the conflict. Even so, he has insisted that his name did not appear on the ballots and that, if he had run directly in the election, the outcome would have been "very different".
Despite the defeat, which has provided the Democrats with a large majority in both chambers of Congress, Trump has once again defended his decision to authorize military operations in the Middle East, arguing the urgency of stopping Iran's nuclear program. "I assume that historically it will be a very good decision. Is it a good decision for today and for tomorrow? Maybe not, but I have to do what is right for the country," he emphasized.
In the military and strategic sphere, the North American president has maintained that U.S. forces have "won" the conflict after destroying Tehran's naval and air capacity, as well as its nuclear infrastructure, and therefore for now rules out a military escalation.
Likewise, he has reiterated that he will demand from the region's allied countries full reimbursement of the costs of the war, underscoring that "without the United States, Israel would not exist."
ADMITS THAT HIS IMMIGRATION POLICY WAS "TOO TOUGH"
In the arena of domestic policy, the head of the Executive has for the first time acknowledged that his strategy of mass deportations was "too harsh" and that it ended up damaging his party's electoral expectations by affecting workers already established in the country.
For this reason, Trump has shown himself willing to negotiate with the new Democratic majority in Congress a legislative agreement to regularize immigrants without a criminal record who have been working in the United States for years, and he has committed to moderating his verbal attacks on the opposition if that helps to reach a pact.
In the final stretch of the interview, the president has ruled out the option of self-pardoning before finishing his term, although he has indicated that he will grant a "high number of pardons" to collaborators and senior officials of his Administration in order to prevent them from facing legal proceedings once he leaves the White House.
This outcome will occur after the 2028 presidential elections, elections for which he has shown himself to be prudent when it comes to backing a specific Republican candidate, even though he has highlighted the strength of "the bench" of his party. After praising the work of the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, whom he considers a relevant but not exclusive option, the incumbent has avoided citing more names and has referred to the presence of "excellent senators."
In any case, he has asserted the influence of his support in the Republican primaries and has assured that the 'Make America Great Again' movement (MAGA, by its English-language initials) will remain in force beyond his own figure, since, he has said, it is a philosophy based on "common sense".