Vance distances himself from Trump’s Iran war defense after GOP losses

Poll finds military action less decisive than cost of living and corruption

Vice President JD Vance publicly broke from President Donald Trump’s defense of the Iran war on Wednesday, saying Republican voters had backed Democrats because of the conflict and other grievances. Vance, who has said he would decide after the election whether to run for president in 2028, made the argument in a lengthy social media post amid questions about his political ambitions.

Democrats swept control of both the House and the Senate on Tuesday, defeating Republican candidates even in deep-red areas that Trump carried by wide margins two years earlier. Responding in the post, Vance said, “the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone,” and said Republican voters backed Democrats because of the war, the cost of living, America not being prioritized and the U.S. relationship with Israel.

Vance challenged the case for treating the war as worth its political cost, writing, “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.”

Trump continued his defense on the campaign trail and in interviews as election results came in. Speaking Wednesday morning during an impromptu visit to the ballroom he was constructing at the White House, Trump said, “The Iran thing, we had to do and we continue to do it.” He said he had spoken with Vance and had known the war would affect the midterms. Asked about Vance’s post, Trump called it “good,” said, “I know how he feels about it,” and added, “I think it was fine.”

Vance had long advocated for restraint in U.S. military intervention overseas. A former Marine who served in Iraq, Vance had criticized that conflict and said after becoming vice president that a Trump administration would not send troops into the “open-ended conflicts” of the past.

After Trump launched the war in the spring, Vance was noticeably quiet about it, despite his history as a defender of the president, and became the face of an unsuccessful attempt to end the fighting. In the summer, however, he argued the conflict was worth it, telling conservative podcast host Megyn Kelly in an interview that, “If we transformed the Middle East, this is fundamentally worth it.”

The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 voters in the United States, found that about 6 in 10 said the United States made the “wrong decision” in taking military action against Iran. Most voters who were dissatisfied with the war backed the Democratic candidate in their U.S. House race. Nearly all voters who backed the Democratic candidate said going to war with Iran was the “wrong decision,” while roughly 8 in 10 voters who backed the Republican candidate said it was the “right decision.”

The survey suggested that the Iran war was not the leading issue for most voters. Only about one-third said the war in Iran was “crucial” to their vote for Congress, well below the roughly half who said the same about the cost of living or government corruption.

Vance also continued a public difference with Trump over Israel. Unlike Trump, Vance declined to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection. In the summer, Vance publicly chastised members of Israel’s government for opposing Trump’s efforts to resolve the war with Iran.

Vance also appeared to be seeking distance from the administration’s immigration enforcement, which had drawn a backlash, despite his history as a staunch defender of its immigration policies. He wrote, “I’m open to the idea that we should change enforcement — by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance,” and rejected any politicians who might propose amnesty for people living in the country illegally.

Vance’s post included the Iran war among his explanations for the Republican defeat, but the AP poll suggested the conflict was not the leading issue for most voters. Vance and Trump offered different public assessments of the result: Vance cited the war and other voter concerns, while Trump continued to defend the conflict as something the United States had to do.