Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday pinned the Republican Party's midterm collapse on the administration's war in Iran, and President Donald Trump largely agreed with him while insisting he would make the same choice again.
The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night
JD Vance, vice president
Vance made the case in a long social media post the day after Tuesday's elections. He said Trump had reached the same conclusion the night before, and he dared anyone who thought the war justified giving up the Senate for six years to say so openly rather than look for other explanations.
Asked about the post that afternoon, Trump told reporters Vance was mostly right because the conflict had driven gasoline prices up in the short term. He said he had expected the war to hurt Republicans at the ballot box but still considered it worth fighting, arguing Iran cannot be allowed a nuclear weapon. He added that he knew how Vance felt and was fine with the post.
But at the same time, if I had to do it again, I’d have to do it again because long term, it’s the only answer.
Donald Trump, president
The war began in February, when Trump ordered strikes on the Islamic republic even though it posed no apparent active threat. He had promised a quick finish. Instead, fighting was still underway as polls closed Tuesday, and Iran continued to block the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping lane whose closure has tightened global oil supplies.
Vance argued that turnout was not the problem. Many people who voted Republican in 2024 switched to Democrats this year, he wrote, and they gave four reasons: end the war, focus on the cost of living, put America first and change how the United States deals with Israel.
The losses reached deep into friendly territory. Republicans surrendered a large House majority to Democrats, and they lost Senate races and governor's offices even in states the Trump-Vance ticket won by double-digit margins two years ago.
The post was an unusual public break for a sitting vice president. Vance is viewed as a leading contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, and the breadth of Tuesday's defeat may signal that he needs room from Trump to compete in a general election.
His doubts about Middle East wars are not new. Vance served in Iraq as a Marine and harshly criticized that war in a 2023 social media post.
Vance also anticipated pressure to overhaul immigration policy, after some analysts linked an aggressive and at times deadly enforcement campaign to defections among Trump's 2024 voters. He ruled out amnesty, saying anyone promoting it was lying, but said he was open to shifting enforcement toward businesses that hire workers in the country illegally, another sign of space between him and the president on the administration's signature issue.
