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President Donald Trump declared this Wednesday, during his twelfth cabinet meeting at the White House, that the November elections are not his priority: "I don’t care about the midterm elections," he stated in front of his cabinet secretaries.
According to POLITICO, the comment arose when the president explained why he has not acted more quickly to end the war with Iran.
The statement comes just two weeks after Trump told reporters, "I don't think about the financial situation of Americans," while discussing those same negotiations, according to NBC News.
Both phrases reveal a striking pattern at a time when their party faces a challenging electoral landscape: May polls place Trump's approval between 34% and 37%, with a disapproval rate of 72% on the issue of prices and inflation, and the Democrats lead the so-called "generic ballot" by eight points among registered voters.
The midterm elections on November 3, 2026 will renew the entire House of Representatives and part of the Senate, in an atmosphere described by analysts as "hurricane-force winds" against the Republican Party.
The cabinet meeting revealed a notable duality: Trump opened the gathering by reading from a folder a list of the administration's achievements—jobs, border security, crime reduction, tax cuts, record stock market highs, and historic retirement plans—but repeatedly veered towards his projects for beautifying Washington.
"I love construction; it's very exciting," Trump said while discussing the repainting of the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial, a project he described as "something truly significant."
The cabinet members focused mainly on highlighting economic achievements. "You are leading us to the largest economy the world has ever known," said the Administrator of the Small Business Administration, Kelly Loeffler.
The Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, once again promised that gasoline prices would soon decrease, although he acknowledged hesitantly: “The ongoing resilience of the economy speaks for itself, even during the Iran — the, uh, conflict.”
The war with Iran was never far from the conversation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio remarked on the ongoing negotiations: "We will see in the coming hours and days if progress can be made," and reminded Trump that he had "other options... if that doesn't work."
Iranian state television claimed to have obtained a draft memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran that would see Iran restore commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels within a month, in exchange for the withdrawal of U.S. military forces and the lifting of the naval blockade, according to Reuters.
In that context, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth drew a comparison between foreign policy and the president's construction projects: "When you authorized Operation Epic Fury —just like you spoke about the Reflecting Pool— we didn't do the same old thing we've done in the past."
Trump is simultaneously managing the war with Iran, the capture of the Venezuelan leader, tensions with Cuba — which he declared an "extraordinary threat" through an executive order in January — and the threats to annex Greenland, all while negotiations with Tehran progress without a defined resolution date.
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