<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Wednesday’s cabinet meeting at the White House began, as it always does, with a long monologue from President Trump about the state of his presidency. About eight minutes in, while talking about the negotiations with Iran, he said <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/world/middleeast/trump-iran-peace-talks.html" title="">one of those things</a> he sometimes says that would be difficult to imagine another president blurting out.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">“They thought they were going to outwait me, you know,” he said of the Iranians. “‘We’ll outwait him. He’s got the midterms.’ I don’t care about the midterms.”</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Mr. Trump’s professed indifference had echoes of <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/us/politics/trump-billionaire-iran-war-cost.html" title="">his remark</a> earlier in the month when, pressed about the domestic economic impact of the war, he said: “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.”</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Both were said in the same spirit: His mission to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is so important for humanity, he argues, that it must outweigh any ephemeral concerns on the home front — political, economic or otherwise.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">“People understand it,” he said at the Wednesday cabinet meeting. “They know that, very simple, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I’m doing that for the world. I’m not doing it just for us.”</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">It is unlikely that the president does not actually “care” about the midterms, the results of which will determine much of the success of the back half of his final term. But Mr. Trump has increasingly adopted a posture of nonchalance in the face of mounting fallout on multiple fronts: an <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/us/politics/poll-trump-republicans-midterms-iran.html" title="">unpopular war</a> that has dragged on longer than he said it would, the creation of a government fund <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/us/politics/trump-irs-lawsuit.html" title="">that could benefit his allies</a>, and his fixation on <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/01/24/us/trump-white-house-changes-renovations.html" title="">remaking Washington</a> into his vision of a gilded city.</p><div class="css-kbghgg"><div class="css-121kum4"><div class="css-171d1bw"></div><div class="css-asuuk5"><noscript><div class="css-7axq9l" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-1u67kh9" data-tpl="i" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><path clip-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 12a9.5 9.5 0 1 1 19 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 1-19 0Zm8.5 1.75v-7.5h2v7.5h-2Zm0 2v2h2v-2h-2Z" fill="currentColor" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript-message"><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.</p><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.</p></div></div></noscript><div class="css-1dv1kvn" id="optimistic-truncator-a11y" tabindex="-1"><hr/><p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. 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