President Donald Trump attributed Republicans’ losses in the midterm elections to the U.S. war in Iran, “a great dislike” of Israel and “bad messaging” about the state of the U.S. economy in an extended CBS “60 Minutes” interview released on Sunday.

In a nearly hour-long conversation with CBS News’ Ross Douthat, Trump’s first interview since Democrats regained control of the House and Senate last week, the president said the American people had rejected Republican candidates because he was not on the ballot, growing anti-Israel sentiment and higher gas prices that had been attributed to the Iran war.

“They didn’t like the war. They didn’t like the fact that gasoline went up, because I had it down at a low,” Trump said. “The war was blamed for that, and they didn’t like the war I think mostly for that reason, because I think everyone agrees that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and they will never have a nuclear weapon. They won’t have that.”

“There’s a great dislike, incredibly, for Israel. There seems to be a dislike for Israel,” he continued. “So you have that. You have the war itself. You have the gas prices. And I think those are the primary reasons.”

Asked by Douthat if the Iran war was solely to blame for the Democratic wave, or if voters were also responding to cost of living and inflation concerns “that haven’t been fixed,” Trump responded: “Well, it’s not really the Iran war because the [economic] numbers are phenomenal. The numbers that we have are historically good numbers. I think it was bad messaging, maybe by me, but I would talk about it all the time. So I don’t know, how much can I talk about it?”

Trump said that he agreed with Vice President JD Vance’s assessment that the Iran war and the current state of the U.S.-Israel relationship was to blame for Republicans’ poor midterms performance, though he noted that Vance “left out” that the president himself would strike Iran again given the threat the regime posed. 

“The only thing I wish he would’ve said there, if he felt it, and you’d have to ask him about that, but if you had it to do again, would you do it? He’s part of a decision-making process,” Trump said of Vance. “My answer is an emphatic yes, because you can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon. I think historically this will be a very good decision. Is it a good decision for today and tomorrow? Maybe not, but I have to go with what’s right for our country.”

The president also noted that he was not sure if Vance would agree with his assessment that launching the U.S. war in Iran was the right decision. 

Asked if he thought his hard-line approach to illegal immigration helped or hurt Republicans’ midterm performance, Trump responded: “I think it both helped and hurt. I think I got an A+ for closing up the border because we had 25 million people come in through [former President Joe] Biden over a four-year period.”

“For getting people out, I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out, but I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally,” he said. “Now, there is a large part of the country that think that they should be put out and there’s a large part of the country that think that they should be allowed to stay, if they’re good people working in a landscaping company, or workin’ in a hotel, or doing something, and in some cases, paying taxes. There’s a large group of people [who] think that they should be allowed to stay.”

On Iran, after Douthat asked if he was looking to “escalate the war now that the midterms are over,” Trump said that, “Well, I’m not looking to. I don’t think there’s any reason to.”

Trump also rejected Douthat’s claim that the Iranians “still have nuclear material.” He said that while the U.S. will continue to “watch” Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, the underground facility suspected of housing components of Tehran’s nuclear program, he suggested that there was not a present need to do so. 

“If we needed to do Pickaxe, which we don’t at this moment, we would have that done in one hour, it would be taken care of,” Trump said. 

The president also rejected the notion that the operation that successfully deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro factored into his decision to move from targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities to targeting the regime. “One had nothing to do with the other,” he said. 

Looking ahead to the 2028 presidential contest, Trump said that he was “probably,” though “not necessarily” going to endorse a successor. Still, he noted that Republicans “have a tremendous bench,” pointing to the fact that “I have so many people that I have great relationships with.”

Asked who, besides Vice President JD Vance, he would consider supporting, Trump mentioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while dismissing reports that Rubio was planning his departure from the administration, and “some senators that are excellent,” though he did not mention anyone by name, and “many others.” 

“I’d rather not mention their names. There’s some senators that are excellent. I know them all, I like them a lot,” Trump said. “So I may or may not get involved. I don’t know. Maybe I’m better off not getting involved. I think it would play a big role if I did, because my endorsement capacity has been very strong.”