Midterm Race Turns Iran War Into Election Leverage

More than 4,300 people heard former U.S. President Barack Obama call the Nov. 3 midterm elections a “circuit breaker” against President Donald Trump’s Iran policy and agenda at a Detroit rally on Saturday. The ballot is being presented as a brake on government decisions, but it won’t itself remove the machinery that sends policy outward and leaves households to absorb the costs.

The ballot as a brake

Obama campaigned at Cass Technical High School with Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson. He blamed Trump’s war and tariffs for adding financial pressure on American households, and accused Trump and his family of using the presidency for personal enrichment, Michigan Public reported.

In Cleveland, Obama said Trump chose war without public demand: “Most importantly, he decided to start an unnecessary war that nobody asked for.” In Detroit, where early in-person voting began that day, Obama urged voters to use the midterms to restrain the administration. “We got to flip that circuit breaker, bring some accountability to this government,” he said.

El-Sayed made his own campaign pitch: “Fighting for change, real change, that will get money out of politics and put money in your pocket.” He faces Republican former congressman Mike Rogers in a closely contested Senate race. El-Sayed has sharply criticized Israel and U.S. military support for the country, opposed U.S. military aid to Israel and argued Washington should prioritize domestic needs. Those positions energized progressive supporters while alienating some Jewish and moderate voters as he tried to unite Michigan Democrats.

Obama defended El-Sayed against attacks over his Muslim faith, comparing them with false claims about his own religion and identity. “We have seen this movie before. I starred in it.” He also welcomed El-Sayed’s past criticism of his presidency, calling disagreement within the Democratic Party healthy. Elections promise accountability, but the contest itself is about who will hold government power.

Obama accused Trump of corruption and criticized his Iran strategy and White House renovations. “We have never seen a president excel in straight-up grifting, on your dime, like this,” he said. He added: “Now the party seems to stand for corrupt government, or inept government, or no government.” The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll in August found that 63% of Americans believed Trump and his family had inappropriately profited from cryptocurrency since he returned to the White House the previous year. The poll also found that 69% believed private business dealings influenced his policy decisions.

War, leverage and the alliance

Obama disputed the administration’s claims of victory against Iran, arguing that threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz had unsettled oil exporters and given Tehran greater economic leverage. “Iran now has veto power over the Strait of Hormuz, where oil goes through to get to the world,” he said. He mocked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s focus on “the jawline and testosterone levels of our troops” and described White House renovations as “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

A Jerusalem Post opinion column by Jonathan S. Tobin framed the Israeli election, which he said would take place a week before the U.S. midterms, as a matter of Israeli voters’ authority. Tobin argued that U.S. commentators wanted an Israeli leader more willing to follow American policies. He cited Democratic lawmakers’ indications that they would consider sanctions, an arms cutoff and downgrading the U.S.-Israel alliance if they won control of Congress. He also cited Jon Finer, deputy national security adviser under President Joe Biden, who wrote that opposition leader Gen. Gadi Eisenkot would be marginally better than Netanyahu.

Tobin argued that no Israeli government would accept U.S. demands for territorial withdrawal and Palestinian forces. He described Trump as valuing Israel as a strategic partner and Vice President JD Vance as less enthusiastic about the alliance, and said relations could grow colder if Vance or Democrats won the presidency in 2028. Tobin urged Israel to reduce its dependence on U.S. military aid and develop domestic weapons production, while acknowledging complete independence wasn’t possible. He noted that the annual aid package was mostly spent in the United States, benefiting American arms manufacturers.

Claims from the commentary pages

An Al Arabiya opinion column by Raghida Dergham argued that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was betting energy pressure would help Democrats regain control of Congress. Dergham questioned whether Trump would carry out threatened strikes before the vote, and described Washington’s demand for nuclear concessions and Iran’s rejection of exporting enriched uranium during Field Marshal Asim Munir’s visit. She said Sergey Lavrov’s Tehran visit produced no announced nuclear concession and that Russian experts were gradually returning to the Bushehr nuclear plant.

Dergham also discussed the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, Kharg Island’s role as an oil export gateway, tankers that had disappeared from a loading terminal and depleted floating oil stocks in Asian waters. She argued that reduced revenues hadn’t changed Iran’s decisions or doctrine, and said complete economic isolation would require cooperation from China and Russia or U.S. sanctions on both. Her account described Hegseth’s Israel visit as signaling military coordination, an updated target list and possible strike options; these were claims and arguments in an opinion column, not independently reported developments.

The campaign speeches offer voters a lever over policy. The opinion columns map competing calculations around aid, sanctions, oil and military action. Across them, elections and alliances appear not as exits from state power, but as contests over who directs it.