Late on October 8, President Donald Trump made voters a promise. "We will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the midterm elections to be held in the United States on November 3rd," he posted on Truth Social. Oil prices fell the next morning.
On Monday, November 2, the day before the election, the U.S. military attacked Iran's Qeshm Island.
That same day, Trump told reporters: "We had a war with Iran. We won. I don't know if you even call it a war because we haven't been doing any fighting for months."
Both of those things come from the same Wall Street Journal report, published Monday night. And the Journal found the Qeshm strike wasn't a one-off.
Weeks of strikes nobody announced
According to U.S. officials who spoke to the Journal, the U.S. has been carrying out smaller-scale strikes against Iran for several weeks. Qeshm was just the latest.
Unlike earlier in the war, none of these attacks has been publicly announced. One official told the Journal the administration has been purposefully keeping the campaign quiet so as not to signal any intention of resuming major combat operations.
Some officials described the strikes as defensive, meant to stop Iran from attacking commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The Journal reported that on Monday, Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired a missile at a U.S. fighter jet, which fired back, and that U.S. forces intercepted another Iranian missile aimed at shipping.
Whatever the reason for each strike, the facts don't fit what Trump told the country. He promised no attacks before the election. He said there had been no fighting "for months." His own officials say there has been fighting for weeks, and that they kept it quiet on purpose.
What may come after the polls close
The Journal also reported that:
- For weeks, Trump has said the U.S. might return to all-out war with Iran after the midterms.
- The military has laid the groundwork for broader strikes, moving more missile defenses and munitions into the region.
- The U.S. has already told Gulf nations to prepare for a short and intense operation shortly after the election.
Asked Monday whether he was considering striking Iran after the midterms, Trump said "no." Administration officials told the Journal he was still weighing all his options.
So the public has been told one thing, and the region has been told to get ready for another.
Congress never approved any of it
This war has been fought without a vote from Congress to authorize it. When the House passed a resolution ordering U.S. forces out of the war, the Senate killed it 49-50 on September 24, and 14 Republican senators on our report cards voted no. The Senate has now voted at least 14 times on ending the war (13 by the end of July, then September 24). The only measure it passed was a concurrent resolution in June, 50-48, and a concurrent resolution is never sent to the president.
That is why a president can order strikes on another country for weeks and keep them out of the news: the people whose job it is to decide whether the country goes to war have declined to do it.
The cost is already real. We've reported on what the Iran war has cost American taxpayers, and on the U.S. strike that killed Iranian schoolchildren that Hegseth's Pentagon plans to keep under wraps until after the midterms.
The bottom line
Trump promised on October 8 that the U.S. would not attack Iran before the November 3 election. On November 2, the U.S. struck Iran's Qeshm Island, and Trump told reporters there had been no fighting "for months." According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. officials say the military has been carrying out small strikes on Iran for weeks, deliberately unannounced, and Gulf nations have been told to prepare for a short, intense operation shortly after the election. Congress has never authorized the war, and Senate Republicans have repeatedly blocked attempts to end it.
Source
U.S. Strikes Iran's Qeshm Island as Trump Talks Down War Risks — The Wall Street Journal, November 2, 2026, via Common Dreams
