Former United States president Barack Obama has launched a sweeping attack on President Donald Trump's war with Iran at midterm campaign rallies in Ohio and Michigan, calling the conflict 'an unnecessary war that nobody asked for and nobody voted for'. Speaking in Cleveland on Saturday 24 October in support of Democrat Amy Acton, running for Ohio governor, and former senator Sherrod Brown, running for the US Senate, Obama said the administration's actions were directly responsible for rising costs.

The Hormuz argument

Obama argued that seven months into the war, American allies and bases have been attacked, Americans have been killed and hundreds wounded, missile stocks have run down, and Iran now has veto power over the Strait of Hormuz, the route through which much of the world's oil reaches global markets. 'So they're in a stronger strategic position now than before the war started,' he said at a rally in Michigan, where he campaigned for Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on the first day of early voting in the state.

Midterms context

On the nuclear file, Obama said Iran did not have nuclear weapons because he had put a deal in place, and that Trump pulled out of it and started the war. He also criticised the administration's tariffs, saying consumers ultimately bear their costs, and called the 3 November midterm elections 'the circuit breaker in the system'. Trump responded on Truth Social, criticising the former president and calling on voters to support his party's candidates.