Vance blames Iran war for Republican midterm rout, positions himself for 2028 as Trump concedes the war hurt the party but says he would do it again
In essence, that was US vice president JD Vance ‘s explosive explanation for the Republican Party’s electoral debacle in a post in which he appeared to throw his boss under the bus while positioning himself to run for the White House in 2028. In what was a quick 614-word post-mortem of the Republican rout even as final tallies are still being tabulated, Vance argued that strategists had been looking in the wrong place, obsessing over turnout when the real problem was that Trump-Vance voters from 2024 were switching sides. The 2028 subtext was not exactly written in invisible ink.
Because they were upset about the Iran war, tOI correspondent from Washington: There were no hidden Trump voters, just angry Trump voters, standing in plain sight, carrying their grievances to the ballot box and voting for Democrats. “The reason we lost is the war.
Their grievances, Vance said, boiled down to four demands: end the war, tackle inflation and the cost of living, put America First, and change America’s relationship with Israel. The president himself said so last night,” Vance wrote, glossing over the fact that his boss initiated the war and he was implicitly a party to it. Asked for his reaction to Vance’s assessment, Trump said it was “largely true,” conceding that the war had pushed up gasoline prices and hurt Republicans. She had complained that people she knew were being caught up in the crackdown, prompting Trump to tell aides that enforcement should concentrate more on criminals rather than indiscriminate deportation targets, according to one account. Conservative commentator Matt Walsh called the Iran war the greatest political blunder in at least two decades, describing it as an “unforgivable betrayal of America First principles” and demanding new Republican leadership, while Nebraska Republican Don Bacon blamed the administration’s tariffs and broader political conduct for alienating voters, arguing that Americans disliked “chaos, narcissism, tariffs, corruption” and arrogance.
His data analysts had been reassured by turnout figures, but one particularly astute pollster had warned that many former Republican voters were angry and planning to vote Democrat. But now, with the electoral wreckage still smoldering, political pundits saw him positioning himself as the man who understood the voters’ anger — and perhaps the man who could lead the party out of the rubble. But he insisted he would do it all over again, arguing that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon left him with no choice. He also does have another election to win. Already, leaked stories suggest there has been some bloodletting on the issue even in the White House, with reports that Stephen Miller, architect of Trump’s hard-line immigration program, was on the backfoot after Melania Trump expressed unhappiness with the scale and consequences of the deportation drive.
In fact, Vance had previously defended the military action and served as a prominent administration spokesman.
saying he was doing a “very good job”, and the White House insisted he retained the president’s confidence, many previous cabinet officials can attest that the MAGA boss’ endorsements can have a remarkably short shelf life While Trump publicly defended Hegseth. Elsewhere, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was discovering that the Pentagon’s most dangerous battlefield is the White House personnel office, with reports that Trump was privately asking advisors whether the machismo-infused war hawk should remain in his job.