JD Vance blames Iran war for GOP midterm bloodbath

Is Vance correct? Probably.

Did Voldemort have a choice? Nope. Iran was according to many experts (including France's ambassador to the UN) months away from being able to construction up to 9 nuclear weapons. We also had a once in a decade chance to decapitate 100 of there top command with a single bomb strike.

The world can't have Iran control the major trade route for energy.

Was that worth losing the Senate for six years. Arguably yes.

JD Vance blames Iran war for GOP midterm bloodbath

By Ryan King and Emily Goodin

Published Nov. 4, 2026

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance blamed the war in Iran for Tuesday’s GOP electoral bloodbath, a sharp departure from his own remarks about the conflict and the closest Vance has come to criticizing President Trump as his second-in-command.

Vance, who is widely believed to be the top contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, decried the GOP “establishment” in his first public midterm post-mortem.

“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so” he wrote in a 618-word post on X.

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“To the people who are pissed off and want to say, ‘I told you so’: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview.”

The White House retweeted the post and the president himself partially endorsed Vance’s appraisal, saying, “I thought it was good.”

Trump agreed that the war contributed to the rout, saying, “it’s largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit short term,” but differed with the VP on whether the war was worth it.

“I’d have to do it again because long-term, it’s the only answer. You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon… as far as that war is concerned, I would have done nothing different” Trump said.

The president added that he knew his VP was skeptical of the war “when I went in.”

But Trump stunned listeners by saying of Vance that “maybe he won’t run” for president in 2028.

Trump has repeatedly declined to comment on the looming 2028 Republican primary, and Vance himself has said he might not, but the remark drew shock — especially because Vance’s statement gave the impression he was striking out a lane in the contest.

Several people close to and inside the White House said that Trump was merely repeating a standard deflection and that too much was read into the words due to the day’s context.

One Republican close to both men said there was “zero” tension between them.

A GOP operative close to the White House told The Post that Vance was motivated to put out the statement to tell the truth about what happened, so the party could learn and rebuild.

The operative noted that the veep didn’t intend throw the president under the bus with the statement.

Some of Republicans see Vance’s star as falling after the disastrous performance of the party in the midterms. The vice president was a regular presence on the campaign trail for the party. And Republicans suffered big losses in Vance’s home state of Ohio, losing the governorship and the Senate seat.

Vance has one key figure on his side: Donald Trump Jr, who had backed the then-Ohio senator in the 2024 veepstakes, helping him overcome his early criticism of Trump.

On Wednesday, the first son said on X he supported “[e]very word of” the vice president’s postmortem — implicitly confirming reporting that he was at odds with his father over the war in Iran.

Trump Jr. is a powerhouse when it comes to campaigning and fundraising, having raised millions for state Republican parties across the country. That leaves the son with plenty of favors to call in when it comes to the 2028 primary.

Trump had acknowledged earlier during conversations with the Wall Street Journal and multiple other news outlets Tuesday night that “Iran was a piece” of why Republicans suffered one of their worst electoral blowouts in decades. The president also insisted that the fallout was worth it, telling the Journal that he”did the right thing” by going to war.

Despite Vance being known to have had private misgivings about the war, the veep was defensive in public about it, assuring supporters that “if you’re worried about another forever war, Donald Trump is never going to let this be a forever war.”

Still, the longtime skeptic of foreign intervention repeatedly made sure to make overtures to Republicans who felt betrayed by Trump’s decision to attack Iran.

Vance cited findings from a pollster who told him the four top priorities from voters who backed Trump in 2024 but abandoned Republicans in the midterms were ending the war in Iran, focusing on cost of living issues, putting America first, and changing “our relationship to Israel.”

“Everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there,” he stressed.

One of Vance’s close allies during his meteoric political rise, right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson, had spooked the public with a bizarre claim on Sunday that Trump could be on the verge of ordering a nuclear strike on Pickaxe Mountain in Iran, home to a notorious underground facility, believed to be used for the development of nuclear technology.

Carlson had a dramatic falling out with Trump this year over the war in Iran. The former Fox News host had long predicted that Republicans would lose the midterm elections and frequently railed against Trump.

Despite the generationally bad election results, the VP stressed that he remains “hopeful about our country” and urged disaffected Republicans to “take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview.”

“To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country,” he continued.

The vice president, who saw his former Senate seat taken over by Democrat Sherrod Brown Tuesday, previously said he wouldn’t make a decision about 2028 until after the midterms.