Vice President JD Vance Wednesday morning personally drafted the post laying the blame for Republicans’ electoral humiliation on the decision to attack Iran, according to two people familiar with his effort.
The vice president then gave the White House a heads-up before he posted the 614-word missive, according to the two people and a senior White House official, all of whom were granted anonymity to discuss the matter.
President Donald Trump was “totally fine with it,” the senior White House official said.
The post is Vance’s first post-election attempt to distance himself from a war the president has repeatedly defended, even as it helped to spark higher gas and grocery prices, cost the Republicans both chambers of Congress and threatened to derail Vance’s own political ambitions. It begins Vance’s attempt to emerge from Trump’s shadow as a distinct political voice as he positions himself to inherit the MAGA mantle and rebuild a coalition that benefitted in large part from an anti-war posture.
“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,” Vance wrote.
“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.”
Vance said a pollster told him Trump 2024 voters could “come back on our team” if the war ends and the party focuses on the cost of living, a plank Trump often derided on the stump. The pollster, according to Vance’s post, added that Republicans needed to “change our relationship to Israel.”
Within an hour, Donald Trump Jr., a longtime ally of Vance’s, reposted it, adding “Every word of this is 100, 100, 100,” Trump Jr. wrote, while boosting Vance’s post.
A spokesperson for Trump Jr. declined to comment. The White House in a statement confirmed that the president was briefed before Vance posted.
The president on Wednesday said that he understood the vice president’s position on Iran, even as he has continued to underscore his belief that the conflict’s short-term costs are worth its long-term goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“I know how he feels about it. I think it was. I think it was fine. I thought it was good. We knew that. I know that. I knew that when I went in,” Trump said.
But Trump appeared in no hurry to end the conflict in the Middle East, telling reporters that the war would end “whenever I want it to.”
“But it’s got to be done right and we’re never going to let them have a nuclear weapon,” he added before calmly directing attention back to construction of the White House ballroom.
And some Republicans believe Iran will remain a millstone from which Vance will be unable to escape.
“I think he’s done,” one House Republican said.
Another concurred that there would be “no possible way” for him to separate himself from the Iran war, high prices and a slew of other Trump policy moves. He also has “no answer” for the allegations of larger political corruption that voters rejected Tuesday night, according to a third Hill Republican.
Even some of Vance’s allies are skeptical he can ever truly break from Trump. If the president cannot end the war or soothe voters’ anxieties over prices, Vance will suffer the political costs.
"It's possible for him to modestly differentiate himself,” said a Vance ally who is close to the White House. “But there's no way he can totally separate. He’s still Trump’s vice president. This is still a Trump administration war. They’re still both unpopular. He’s not as unpopular as Trump but he’s unpopular."
Key Republicans widely viewed as part of Vance’s 2028 team-in-waiting also worked on a series of midterm campaigns that suffered big losses in the blue wave Tuesday night, including the Iowa and Ohio governors’ races.
The challenge for Vance and his allies is to persuade voters that he never supported the Iran war without appearing to criticize a president he will almost certainly not want to antagonize.
He has tiptoed toward this posture before. Shortly after the war started, Trump said Vance was “philosophically a little bit different than me” and “maybe less enthusiastic about going” but dismissed the idea of a split. Vance also took a lead role in attempting to negotiate a quick end to the war, traveling to Islamabad in April.
“JD is not the Iran guy and everyone knows that,” one of the people familiar with his effort said.
Some lawmakers took notice. A group of Michigan Republicans requested Vance to campaign in their state this fall, not Trump, because the vice president’s relative separation from the Iran war and tariffs among other policies was more appealing to battleground candidates, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.
A former Trump official said that Vance’s success will depend on his ability to demonstrate to the public that he is shifting Trump’s views – not just on Iran but on a host of issues directly related to the cost of living.
“To be seen as somebody who can connect with the president and get him to soften some of these tariffs, which would immediately drop costs,” the person said. “At a minimum, put them on pause for two years for crying out loud.”
Scott Waldman and Ben Johansen contributed to this report.
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