Trump had also linked Iran to the election result without expressing regret
JD Vance said on Wednesday that the U.S. war against Iran was the reason Republicans lost the 2026 midterm elections. He made the claim in a lengthy post on X, saying any honest conversation about where to go from there had to begin with the result.
The Guardian described the intervention as a signal that Vance, once the face of the Trump administration’s deal-making efforts with Tehran, was seeking distance from the unpopular conflict ahead of a possible 2028 White House run. The outlet said the midterm result was widely seen as a sweeping rebuke of Trump’s presidency.
“The real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone … The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance said in a lengthy post on X.
“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. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.”
“Everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there,” Vance added. The Guardian said Vance had reportedly been sceptical about the unresolved war, which Trump launched in February alongside Israel.
On Tuesday, Trump made a similar statement to the Wall Street Journal as Republicans faced what The Guardian described as a historic defeat. Asked in a phone interview about the war’s impact on the election, Trump said, “Iran was a piece of it.”
Trump also said he had no regrets about starting the conflict. “I don’t think about it. I did the right thing. I would have done it again,” he said.
Both statements placed the conflict at the center of the Republican Party’s election defeat while offering different accounts of its aftermath. Vance’s account made the war the reason for the loss and the Senate defeat a cost to be debated. Trump’s account called Iran one part of the result and paired that acknowledgment with his insistence that starting the war was the right choice.