Report: Trump weighs fresh strikes on Iran before midterms

Published: 10:49 EDT, 8 October 2026 | Updated: 10:49 EDT, 8 October 2026

Donald Trump is weighing whether to resume strikes on Iran before next month’s midterm elections, according to a bombshell new report.

The White House has asked the Pentagon to draw up options for fresh strikes on Iran that could be launched before next month’s midterms, two administration officials told The Atlantic.

Brent crude, meanwhile, soared past $105 a barrel on Thursday as markets reacted to the news.

US Central Command is drafting the plans, but the size of the strikes, the targets and whether the president will pull the trigger are all still being debated.

‘It would make the president look like he got a win,’ one Republican familiar with the deliberations told the magazine.

However, officials supportive of resuming the attacks have privately admitted that new strikes would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway in the Persian gulf responsible for one-fifth of all global oil.

It is also unlikely that it would force Iran to the table or bring down gas prices before Election Day. Late last month, Trump rejected an Iranian proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and was expected to hold off on any new bombing until after voters go to the polls.

Talks between Washington and Tehran have been stuck for months, deadlocked over Iran’s nuclear program and control of the strait.

The latest round of Qatari-mediated negotiations brought the two sides virtually no closer to a deal. Tehran is still demanding a return to the terms of a June memorandum that produced a fragile ceasefire, which collapsed within weeks.

The ceasefire collapsed after the US accused the regime of violating peace terms by attacking US-backed oil vessels in the strait.

The US responded by bombarding Iranian radar sites, vessels, and military outposts along the Persian gulf.

However, soaring energy prices have become a nightmare for Republicans fighting to hold their narrow majorities in the House and Senate.

Trump has already conceded that relief at the pump will not come before Election Day.

‘Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward,’ he told reporters last month.

Restarting hostilities just weeks before the vote could deepen the GOP’s pain, because the war is deeply unpopular.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll this summer found just 3 in 10 voters approved of Trump’s handling of Iran. Even 59 percent of Trump’s own voters blame the war for rising energy costs, according to a Politico poll.

The fighting is already spilling across the region, with Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis claiming Thursday to have hit Saudi Arabia’s main airport for the third time this week.

Diplomats in Riyadh were ordered to shelter inside their embassies as repeated blasts rocked the city, and at least one international school sent children into a basement.

New footage also shows Iranian ballistic missiles, drones and what witnesses described as F-5 fighter jets attacking a major US base in Kuwait when the war began seven months ago.