Nigel Farage has accused US President Donald Trump of breaking his pledge to keep America out of foreign wars, saying the conflict with Iran cost the Republicans control of Congress.
Speaking to reporters in London on November 5, the Reform UK leader described the midterm results as a disaster for Trump’s party. He said the President had always kept his promises but had abandoned his vow of no more foreign wars.
“Here we are in month eight of a war with no sign of ending,” Farage said.
He added that the war and the resulting rise in fuel prices were what had ultimately done the damage. Asked whether the conflict had been a mistake, he said there was no question about it.
Farage said he feared Trump would now respond to the defeat by stepping up attacks on Iran. That, he warned, would have serious consequences for oil prices and inflation across the West.
Democrats took control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the November 3 vote. US network projections put the party on course for more than 250 House seats and at least 54 in the Senate, with races in Alaska and Mississippi still being counted.
According to an NBC News exit poll, 74 per cent of voters said the Iran war was a crucial factor in their choice.
Trump has blamed the outcome on his own absence from the ballot but also conceded it was “largely true” that the war had hurt his party. Vice President JD Vance went further, saying the conflict was the reason Republicans lost.
Farage admitted he had misjudged the race. He had predicted the losses would be smaller than forecast, believing that the money and get-out-the-vote technology deployed by billionaire Elon Musk would stem the tide.
He conceded he had got it wrong and called the result a complete wipeout. Farage, who has campaigned alongside Trump since 2016 and calls him a friend, said he had backed the initial US strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme but had never supported endless war.
His stance on the conflict has shifted before. When the US and Israel launched the war in February, he urged then UK prime minister Keir Starmer to back the Americans, only to argue in March that Britain should not get involved in another foreign war.
He nonetheless said Republicans could still win the 2028 presidential election, arguing that voters angry with the President would not necessarily desert the party.
Farage was speaking at an event where Reform UK named former Royal Air Force (RAF) wing commander Angus MacIntyre as its first defence spokesman.
