Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday urged Americans to vote against President Trump in the upcoming midterm elections, calling for a change in U.S. policy toward Tehran and acceptance of what it described as an offer of “peaceful coexistence.”
IRGC spokesperson Gen. Hossein Mohebbi made the appeal in a 25-page letter marking seven months since Iran’s conflict with the U.S. and Israel began in late February.
“You are the ones who empower, with your votes, the government and allow it to do what it does,” reads the letter, obtained by The Times of Israel. “Although American politicians often win your votes through deception and false promises, as Trump did, you can change the makeup of the government if you apply the criteria for good leadership in choosing the people you vote into office.”
The IRGC also suggested the U.S. and Israel are losing the war, while acknowledging the United States is a great nation. But the letter warned that allowing “vulgar and immoral individuals to continue steering your politics and policies will only further humiliate and undermine the U.S.”
“Any politician who thinks they can buy your vote for $5,000 is unworthy to lead you,” the letter states. “Take back control.”
Mohebbi later told The Associated Press that Americans should take to the streets to rally against the Trump administration and condemn what he called its warmongering policies. He accused the U.S. of trying to turn Iran “back into a colony” through its focus on Iran’s nuclear program, which Iranian officials have long insisted is for peaceful purposes.
The White House wasted no time firing back.
“This garbage ‘letter’ is a farcical and laughable attempt by a desperate group of people (IRGC) who know they have no other options left because they have failed their own people, so they resort to telling the American people to ‘vote Democrat,'” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote on X.
“People are smarter than that and they know supporting extreme liberal Democrats means supporting groups like the IRGC,” Cheung added.
On Wednesday, the regime indicated it had received an official U.S. response to Tehran’s seven-day peace proposal, which Trump rejected on Saturday. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the response to President Masoud Pezeshkian during a Cabinet meeting, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani posted on X.
“We will make every effort to bring the agreement to fruition and will firmly stand up for the rights of the Iranian people,” Pezeshkian said, according to the AP. “The agreement must now be based on a win-win strategy.”
The Iran war has become a central issue heading into the midterms. Democratic candidates have slammed the administration for pulling the U.S. into another Middle East conflict, while Republicans have called for a swift end to the fighting to bring down soaring gas prices caused by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
In the months after the first strikes on Feb. 28, Trump and other administration officials said the conflict would last days or weeks. Voter concern over high gas prices and the war’s unpopularity has largely been dismissed, with the president saying in April that he did not consider Americans’ financial hardships when deciding the path forward on Iran.
At a North Carolina rally earlier this month for Republican Senate hopeful Michael Whatley, Trump told voters rising gas prices were “a very inexpensive price to pay” in the confrontation with Iran.
“But that’s going to come tumbling down,” he said of energy costs. “That’s going to be like rocket ships in reverse.”
The national average price for gas slipped slightly Wednesday to $4.43, down from closer to $4.50 earlier this week, according to AAA.
