U.S. President Donald Trump said at a midterm campaign rally in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday, “We are now in the throes of having an even greater victory against Iran and stopping them from ever having a nuclear weapon.”
“America did not start the war with Iran. Iran has been waging this war against America since 1979,” Trump said. “They’ve killed thousands of our soldiers and wounded so many more.”
He accused previous U.S. leaders of lacking “the courage or intelligence” to confront Tehran.
.@POTUS: "Iran has been waging this war against America since 1979, killing many, many of our great people... Past leaders should've settled this problem long ago — but they didn't have the courage or intelligence to do it." pic.twitter.com/SNoFsauaoN
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 27, 2026
Trump also said “more oil is right now flowing out of the Hormuz Strait” and floated renaming the waterway the “Trump Strait,” asking the crowd, “Should we do it?”
Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told supporters at Likud’s election headquarters at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center early Wednesday that Israel faced “a historic, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, with our partner President Trump, to remove the existential threat from Iran once and for all.”
Speaking after the publication of initial exit polls in Israel’s national election, Netanyahu hailed the results as showing beyond any doubt that “Likud is the largest party in Israel.”
Likud had 790,994 votes, or 21.05%, with 3,775,461 votes counted at 8,702 voting stations, according to a Central Elections Committee update at 10:01 a.m. Wednesday. Netanyahu’s bloc had collectively garnered 43.17%, compared with 37.51% for Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party and its allies.
“Iran is weaker than ever, Israel is stronger than ever,” Netanyahu said, while warning that the threat would persist as long as the Iranian regime remained in power. “We must not let any extraneous considerations divert us from this sacred mission,” he added.
