WASHINGTON—Vice President JD Vance spent Tuesday night in the White House East Room watching the disastrous midterm results roll in. Sitting alongside President Trump, Vance saw the Senate seat he had briefly held in Ohio flip to Democratic control, and then all of Congress.
“Maybe he won’t run. It isn’t clear if Vance coordinated his post with the White House in advance, although it is not typical for the vice president to review his social media with the administration. Asked about Vance potentially running for president, Trump, standing at the White House ballroom construction project, shrugged.
“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote in a lengthy post on social media. Vance said Republican voters who had voted for Trump in 2024 showed up, but that they were mad about the war, the resulting higher energy prices and that the administration had abandoned its “America First” agenda. Trump told reporters of Vance’s post “I thought it was good,” acknowledging that he has long known the vice president’s views on the war. “I know how he feels about it,” Trump said. A White House official said the president was aware of Vance’s message before it was published. I don’t know who’s going to run,” he said.
Top administration officials also worked to play down the impact of ongoing military operations even as the administration explored more strikes. Also in September, senior Trump administration officials held a Situation Room discussion about the Iran war’s unpopularity.
Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others sat around the table as top officials said disclosing continuing strikes, whether defensive or offensive, would hurt Republicans in vulnerable states. They agreed advertising the assaults wouldn’t help election prospects, according to people familiar with the discussion.
Some White House advisers have pointed fingers at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom they blame for convincing Trump that the Iran war would be a short engagement similar to the successful capture of ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, according to people familiar with the discussions. Hegseth has frequently been the voice in the cabinet advocating to continue the war, often in opposition to Rubio, Vance and others who pushed for peace talks, some people said. Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth “will not back down or be deterred by politicians seeking to score partisan points or launch phony investigations where no wrongdoing exists. Parnell added that Hegseth is “100% committed to leading the Department until the end of President Trump’s term in office.”
