Don’t Read Too Much Into These Midterms

Foreign Policy · Emma Ashford · 2026-11-02 05:01 UTC

Voters are angry about the Iran war, but that doesn’t mean they want to go back to the pre-Trump status quo.

Voters are angry about the Iran war, but that doesn’t mean they want to go back to the pre-Trump status quo.

If there’s one truism in U.S. politics, it’s that voters don’t vote on foreign policy. Eggheads like me in Washington might go back and forth on what we believe the American people want from foreign policy, complete with polls that reflect our own opinions. But it is rarely, if ever, the case that foreign policy is a salient enough issue to drive voting behavior.

With his Iran war, however, President Donald Trump has made a foreign-policy choice so destructive and toxic that it has raised the ire of voters—and likely cratered his party’s chances heading into the midterm elections on Tuesday.

Read the full story at Foreign Policy · All coverage of this story