JD Vance blames Iran war and support for Israel for failure in US mid-term elections

JD Vance blames Iran war and support for Israel for failure in US mid-term elections

Submitted by MEE staff on Thu, 11/05/2026 - 10:22 Vice president takes apparent swipe at Donald Trump's decision to go to war in the Middle East US President Donald Trump with Vice President JD Vance at the funeral service for US Senator Lindsey Graham in Washington, DC on 28 July 2026 (Alex Wroblewski/AFP) Off

US Vice President JD Vance has blamed the war on Iran for the Republicans' brutal showing in the mid-term elections.

In an apparent swipe at President Donald Trump's Middle East strategy, Vance posted a lengthy social media post on Wednesday that also criticised US support for Israel.

“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance said, in the post on X.

He said that Republican voters had wanted Trump to focus on the cost of living and inflation, put "America first" and "change our relationship to Israel”, Vance wrote.

"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," he wrote.

"But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there."

With 54 seats in the US Senate and 237 in the House so far, the Democrats have swept to power and have the ability to seriously impede Trump's administration.

As the results poured in, Trump took to social media to distance himself from Republican candidates, despite campaigning heavily for them. 

"I wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter," Trump wrote on X. 

One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition" – whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up. So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us." Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026. There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true. But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone. Another pollster – one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were: 1) End the war 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel. Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.) In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement – by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you. 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. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there. I remain hopeful about our country. 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. 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.

— JD Vance (@JDVance) November 4, 2026

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump said that the Iran war was partially to blame for the Democrats' sweeping victory.

"Iran was a piece of it," he said. 

While Trump told Politico on Tuesday during election coverage that he didn't want to just "sit around there for two years vetoing everything", the 80-year-old billionaire, who is prohibited from running for a third term, may also feel unconstrained by lawmakers.

Under the Constitution, only Congress has the authority to declare war, but the last US president who sought congressional approval for the use of military force was George W Bush in 2001 and 2002.

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