Key facts
- Trump said on a Fox News call that voters were unwilling to accept higher gasoline prices caused by the Iran war.
- Democrats won majorities in both the House and Senate, giving them full control of Congress.
- US regular gasoline averaged about 36% higher than a year earlier, or about $1 more per gallon, per AAA on November 3.
- Michigan gasoline prices were up 52% from a year earlier, and US diesel was up about 70% on average.
- The White House said it expects oil prices to drop significantly once the Middle East war ends.
President Donald Trump said voters were unwilling to pay higher gasoline prices that rose because of the Iran war, after Democrats swept the midterms on Tuesday, November 3, 2026. "I don't think it's the war, I think it's the gas prices," Trump said on a phone call with Fox News. "People agree with what I'm doing in Iran, but they really, probably weren't willing to do the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline."
Trump congratulated the Democratic congressional leaders and said he would accept the results. Democrats won the majority in both the House and Senate, leaving Trump facing a fully opposition-controlled Congress. "I don't like to consider it a defeat for me, I wasn't on the ballot," Trump said, adding that he felt "badly for a lot of very good Republicans, a lot of very good patriots that lost tonight."
Fuel costs have risen since February, when the US and Israel began launching airstrikes on Iran, after which Iran began mining and attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Disruptions to the strait, through which 20 to 25% of the world's seaborne oil previously flowed, have constrained global supply and sent energy prices higher worldwide.
Regular gasoline prices in the US are about 36% higher on average, or about $1 higher per gallon, than a year earlier, according to AAA's Fuel Price Tracker on November 3. In Michigan, where Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed leads Republican incumbent Sen. Mike Rogers, gasoline prices have risen 52% from a year earlier. Diesel prices have risen about 70% on average in the US, reaching record highs in all but three states.
The White House has said it expects oil prices to drop significantly once the war in the Middle East ends. Fighting continues on a limited scale. Several media outlets reported that the US carried out an unpublicized campaign of several small-scale strikes on Qeshm, an island in the Strait of Hormuz, in recent weeks; The Wall Street Journal was first to report the strikes, which included one attack on Monday.