"They thought they were going to out-wait me. 'We'll out-wait him. He's got the midterms.' I don't care about the midterms."
At a May 27 Cabinet meeting, asked by ABC's Rachel Scott whether high gas prices gave him urgency to reach an Iran deal, Trump said the only real urgency was that 'we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon,' dismissed the political clock — 'I don't care about the midterms' — and ruled out any relief: 'No sanctions, no money, no nothing.' He said Iran was 'negotiating on fumes' and the alternative was to 'just finish the job.'
Coverage led with the personality beat — Trump 'shrugs off midterms' — and the on-again-off-again deal drama. The on-record policy content (no sanctions relief, U.S. keeps control of Iranian money, 'finish the job') ran lower, and the admission that domestic prices would not move him was framed as bravado rather than a stated governing priority.
Presidents usually deny that elections drive war timing. Here the president said the opposite on camera — they don't — and laid out the money-and-sanctions posture plainly. It is the rare case where the quiet part is the on-record part, and it was filed as color.