Vance Says Iran War Cost Republicans Congress as Trump Calls Assessment Largely True

Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday that the war with Iran was the reason Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterm elections, and President Donald Trump said the assessment was “largely true” while defending the war as necessary.

“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance wrote in a long post on X, according to NBC News. He pointed to an interview Trump gave The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday night, in which Trump said the war was a factor in the losses.

Vance cited a conversation with a pollster he did not name. According to Vance, the pollster said voters who backed Trump in 2024 and planned to vote for Democrats this year named four issues: ending the war, the cost of living, putting America first, and changing the relationship with Israel.

Vance also spoke directly to Republicans who backed the war. “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,” he wrote. “Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost.”

Trump agrees on the cost, not on the decision

Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that Vance’s view was “largely true” because the war had pushed gasoline prices up “a little bit, short term.” He said he would make the same decision again because Iran cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.

“If I had to do it again, I’d have to do it again,” Trump said, according to reports of his remarks. He also told the Journal that the war was “a piece of it” in the losses, adding: “I don’t think about it. I did the right thing. I would have done it again.”

The exchange opened a public split inside the Republican Party a day after Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate. The new Congress convenes on January 3, 2027, and Trump keeps the presidential veto, so Democratic bills will still need Republican votes in many cases.

Leadership contest and Democratic plans

House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Wednesday that he will not seek to stay on as Republican leader in the next Congress, Reuters reported. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan plan to run for the post, with the party election set for November 10. Trump said he would not intervene in the contest.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has listed ending the Iran war among his priorities, along with reversing Medicaid reductions, extending Affordable Care Act tax credits, and stopping Trump’s tariffs, Spectrum News reported.

Not every Republican accepts Vance’s account. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said on Times Radio that the losses came from the cost of living and the tariffs that Trump and Vance placed on Americans and on other countries. Senator Mitt Romney wrote on X that “bad policy, bad character make bad politics,” and listed “erratic tariffs” and an “impulsive Iran war” among the causes.

Markets moved on the same news. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,569.40 points, or 3.03 percent, to 53,356.12 on Wednesday, while Brent crude settled 8.7 percent lower at $94.62 a barrel, according to reports cited by TNS News. Reuters linked the drop in oil to investor hopes that the election result could add pressure to end the war.

Reporting based on coverage by TNS News, The Times and NBC News.