Presidential hopeful Vance appears to question Iran war after polls debacle

Vance cited trusted pollster saying Iran war, Israel ties were top of mind for Trump voters swinging to Democrats.

Vice President JD Vance arrives on Air Force Two, Monday, November 2, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. [Tom Brenner/Pool via AP]

Vice President JD Vance has blamed the war on Iran for his party’s withering midterms defeat, suggesting that the conflict may not have been worth ceding control of the US Congress to Democrats.

“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” he wrote 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.”

“Everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”

Vance, a likely 2028 presidential candidate and heir apparent to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, has been a key negotiator with Iran as the two countries search for a way out of the conflict, which has dented their economies and pushed global fuel prices up.

US Vice President JD Vance speaks at a midterm campaign rally in Swanton, Ohio on November 2, 2026. [AFP]

His statements on Tehran have been more dovish than those of other key members of the administration, and his post-election note appears to mark the closest he has yet come to publicly diverging from his boss on an issue that looks set to dog Republicans as the war continues.

Citing a pollster he describes as “one of the smartest people I know”, Vance said he was told ending the Iran war and “changing our relationship with Israel” were two of the top four answers given by Americans surveyed who had voted for Trump in 2024 but were planning to vote for Democrats in the 2026 midterms.

In stark contrast, Trump said, in the wake of the rebuke at the ballot box , that he had no regrets about launching the conflict.

“I did the right thing. I would have done it again ,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

万斯援引一位值得信赖的民调专家的话说，伊朗战争和以色列关系是特朗普支持者转向民主党时最关心的问题。

2026年11月2日星期一，副总统约翰·德·万斯乘坐空军二号抵达马里兰州安德鲁斯联合基地。[汤姆·布伦纳/美联社供图]

副总统 JD Vance 将伊朗战争归咎于其所在政党在中期选举中惨败，暗示这场冲突可能并不值得将美国国会的控制权拱手让给民主党。

“我们战败的原因是战争。总统昨晚也亲口说了，”他在X网站上发表的一篇长文中写道。“如果你想争辩说这场战争值得，认为失去未来六年参议院的控制权是值得的，那就随你便吧。”

“每个人都知道我们输了的原因。任何关于我们未来走向的坦诚讨论都必须从这里开始。”

万斯很可能成为 2028 年总统候选人，也是特朗普“让美国再次伟大”运动的接班人。他一直是与伊朗进行谈判的关键人物，两国正在寻求摆脱冲突的途径。这场冲突重创了两国的经济，并推高了全球燃料价格。

2026年11月2日，美国副总统JD Vance在俄亥俄州斯旺顿市的中期选举竞选集会上发表讲话。[法新社]

他对德黑兰的表态比政府其他重要成员更为鸽派，而他在选举后的声明似乎标志着他迄今为止在这一问题上最接近公开与他的老板意见相左，而随着战争的继续，这个问题似乎注定会困扰共和党人。

万斯引用一位他称之为“我认识的最聪明的人之一”的民意调查员的话说，这位民意调查员告诉他，结束伊朗战争和“改变我们与以色列的关系”是接受调查的美国人给出的前四条答案中的两条，这些美国人在 2024 年投票给了特朗普，但计划在 2026 年中期选举中投票给民主党。

与此形成鲜明对比的是，在投票箱遭到否定之后，特朗普表示，他对发动这场冲突毫不后悔。

“我做了正确的事。如果再来一次，我还会这么做。”他告诉《华尔街日报》。