Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that the Trump administration’s ongoing war with Iran was to blame for Republicans’ massive losses in Tuesday’s midterm election, during which Democrats reclaimed control of both chambers of Congress.
But President Donald Trump, asked about Vance’s comments, remained committed to the ongoing military action despite “largely” agreeing with Vance about the impact of the war on the election.
The vice president wrote in a lengthy social media post that “the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.”
“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance said of the Trump administration’s ongoing conflict with Iran. “The president himself said so last night.”
Vance said he spoke with pollsters who told him that many people who voted for Trump in 2024 switched to the Democrats in this election because they were “angry.”
The ABC News Voter Poll found about 4 in 10 House voters nationally said they were angry about the way things were going in the country today and a similar share were dissatisfied.
“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,” Vance wrote.
The vice president in the past has publicly been supportive of the war and slammed the president’s critics over the issue.
Trump often suggested on the campaign trail that the war, and inflated gas prices, were “a small price to pay” to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.
Asked about Vance’s comments during an event at the White House on Wednesday, Trump called them “largely true,” however he defended his decision to attack Iran, which he has done in the past.
“If I had it to do again, I’d have to do it again because long term, it’s the only answer,” Trump told reporters. “You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump said he knew Vance’s view of the war from the beginning.
“I know how he feels about it. I think it was — I think it was fine. Yeah, I thought it was good,” Trump said of Vance’s social media post. “I knew that when I went in, and we stopped them from having a nuclear weapon, and they will never have a nuclear weapon.”
Asked if he felt the war was worth it, Trump said he did.
“I do. Yeah. I mean, well, you have no choice,” he said, later adding, “I can tell you that, as far as that war is concerned, I would have done nothing differently.”
ABC News’ Voter Poll of House voters found that voters nationally were more focused on other factors, including the cost of living, than the Iran war.
Nationally, 34% of U.S. House voters said that the war in Iran was “crucial” to their vote, while 49% said the same about the cost of living and 55% said government corruption was crucial to their vote.
Although the Iran war has led to rising gas prices, voters have said that their concerns over the cost of living weren’t just limited to their receipts at the pump.
The Voter Poll found 59% of House voters nationally saying they were “very concerned” about the cost of healthcare.
About 6 in 10 U.S. House voters said that the federal government should play a bigger role in helping Americans get healthcare and 55% said the Trump administration’s policies have made their healthcare costs worse. Just 10% said the Trump administration has improved their healthcare costs, according to the Voter Poll.
Trump’s tariffs have also been costing the typical American household almost $1,000 a year.
Vance said in his X post that an unidentified pollster told him that their “economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch.”
Vance argued that Republicans were not failed by turnout among Trump 2024 voters, saying they “showed up,” but that those Americans, according to a pollster, were “pissed and planning to vote for the other guys.”
He also claimed of Republican turnout that “in no state was it catastrophic.”
“The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026,” the vice president said.
-ABC News’ Elizabeth Schulze contributed to this report.
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