Vance Blames Iran War for Republican Midterm Defeat
US Vice President JD Vance has blamed the war in Iran for the Republican Party’s crushing defeat in the midterm elections, saying in a blunt social media post that the conflict cost his party control of Congress. The remarks, posted on X on Wednesday, opened a rare public split at the top of the Trump administration, with President Donald Trump partly agreeing but refusing to disown the war.
“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance wrote, adding: “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.”
A sweeping Democratic victory
Democrats secured control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s elections, with NBC News projecting at least 54 Senate seats and potentially 258 seats in the House against 177 for the Republicans, according to Bloomberg. It was the party’s biggest midterm setback in generations, with voters in conservative strongholds that had powered Trump’s re-election two years ago swinging sharply toward the Democrats.
Vance, who is seen as a leading contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, rejected the argument that Republicans lost because their voters stayed home. His voters turned out, he argued — and many of them voted for Democrats instead. He cited an unnamed pollster who, he said, listed four reasons why voters who backed Trump in 2024 abandoned Republicans: end the war, change the US relationship with Israel, tackle the cost of living, and advance an America First agenda.
Trump: “I did the right thing”
President Trump, who launched the war on Iran jointly with Israel in late February, partly agreed that the conflict hurt his party. Speaking on Fox News on election night, he said “a part of it” was Iran, but argued voters were mainly upset about high gasoline prices caused by the conflict. Asked on Wednesday about Vance’s post, Trump said his vice president’s assessment was mostly correct — but drew a clear line on the war itself.
“I did the right thing,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal. “I would have done it again.” He insisted the war was necessary to stop Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, and said he did not know whether Vance would run for president in 2028.
The split comes as Trump weighs whether to restart major combat operations against Iran, a step US officials have told Reuters is still under consideration. Trump was briefed last week by Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, on options for renewed strikes. But US intelligence assessments in recent months have indicated that renewed strikes would not fundamentally change Tehran’s negotiating position or lead to regime change, according to a US intelligence official and two other sources cited by Reuters.
War fatigue and the cost of living
The war, launched with predictions of a brief conflict, turned into an effective stalemate after an April ceasefire failed to deliver a peace deal. It also triggered higher energy prices, feeding the cost-of-living frustration that dominated the run-up to the election. Vance’s post drew a mocking response from Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who called the vice president a “losing gambler” and was his counterpart in face-to-face peace talks in April.
Other Republican figures joined the finger-pointing. Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz also criticised the party’s direction after the sweeping losses, setting the stage for a battle over the party’s future and the 2028 presidential race. Marco Rubio, a possible 2028 rival to Vance, has remained silent since the elections.
For now, the administration’s public line is split: the vice president says the war lost Congress, while the president says the war was right — and both men are watching whether the fighting resumes. Democrats have already voted repeatedly to end the fighting unless Trump seeks congressional authorisation; Trump launched the war without securing Congress’s approval first.
Read our earlier coverage of the midterm results here: https://ntmnews.online/?p=3597 — and of Iran’s warning of a far bigger response to any renewed US attack here: https://ntmnews.online/?p=3645
Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg via Moneyweb and Business Standard