Republicans Try to Craft Their Midterm Pitch Despite Conflicting Iran War Messages

House Republicans want to tout tax cuts, but the president’s most recent speech focused on the war in Iran and a voter ID bill.

Trump

President Donald Trump spoke Monday to House Republicans at their annual issues conference in Doral, Fla. Mark Schiefelbein/AP

DORAL, Fla. — President Donald Trump defended his decision to attack Iran at the annual House Republican retreat, contradicting his own timeline several times and dodging questions about when the efforts would end.

With voters indicating that inflation and the cost of living are their biggest issues ahead of the November midterms, Trump’s rhetoric appeared to distance the Republican Party from Americans’ concerns.

“I think you can say about the beginning, it’s the beginning of building a new country,” Trump told reporters when asked about when the war, which he’d initially said would end in a matter of weeks, would wrap. “We could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here, I could call it, or we could go further, and we’re going to go further.”