PoliticsNovember 09, 2026
Here's what Trump WANTED to hear from JD Vance in his infamous "blame the Iran war" post
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The post-midterms finger-pointing and wallowing in sadness seem to fall into two groups. One blames the Iran War, along WITH the economy (tariffs) and corruption (which is loosely defined), as the reason why the right got wiped out. The other says Iran is the only reason, and if you disagree, you are a neocon uniparty psyop (I'm paraphrasing).
JD Vance, per an X-Twitter post, implied he is more in line with the latter group, and Donald Trump spoke out about it on 60 Minutes.
Here's the thing. Donald Trump said a lot of things over the weekend. I don't have the strength to get into the Dana White stuff.
And people on both sides (in this case, left and right) are clipping the parts of it they want to share. This is Trump's FULL answer from 60 Minutes. He said he didn't disagree with Vance's post and that the VP could write what he wants.
The only thing I wish he would've said there, if he felt it, and you'd have to ask him about that, but if you had to do it again, would you do it? You know, he's part of a decision-making process.
And my answer is an emphatic yes because you can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. I think, historically, this will be a very good decision. Is it a good decision for today and tomorrow? Maybe not. But you know, I have to go with what's right for our country.
If they had a nuclear weapon during my term, I would be excoriated far worse than what's happened.
President Trump says “I don't disagree” with Vice President JD Vance’s social media post that said the reason Republicans lost in the midterm elections was because of the war in Iran. https://t.co/dbfz7SGyH4 https://t.co/eD8NVGD0Cl
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 9, 2026
If you missed it, this is Vance's post.
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 war2) Focus on cost of living/inflation3) Put America First4) Change our relationship to IsraelOur 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
We've since learned via the WSJ that the pollster in question that he spoke to was Mark Mitchell.
Apparently, this was the “pollster” that JD Vance was referring to in his now infamous post-election tweet, who blamed the loss on Israeli relations. Mark here was fired from Rasmussen for…well…it wasn’t revealed, but doesn’t exactly seem like a mystery.
— Emily Zanotti 🦝 (@emzanotti) November 8, 2026
Whether or not there was a campaign in place to blame Iran before they even started counting votes on Tuesday is open to interpretation.
Don't blame Tucker. He was trying to help Republicans when he abandoned the party, then fabricated a story on the eve of the election that Trump wants to drop a nuke and start WWIII, destroying the entire world.And don't say this influenced anyone. It was only viewed 100 million times.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) November 9, 2026
Everyone is dicing apart what Trump said. He's not wrong that the Iran War is one of the reasons why they lost. He's not wrong that people are blaming their dislike of Israel. "People" literally are.
And it's not like Trump will admit tariffs and corruption also played a part in the right getting mollywhopped. That would require...I mean, c'mon. It's Trump.
But I want to focus on these words: [Vance is] a part of a decision-making process. That makes me think Trump isn't happy with his vice president, because he set Vance up for the next time he speaks to a (non-friendly) reporter.
Now the obvious question is what would Vance do differently? How much did he push back against the President? Why did he support the war in public? What about the ceasefire he pushed that people point to as where the Iran War started to drag on?
(I'm using "war" in finger quotes just for brevity)
Trump doubled down on saying his Iran decision was the right thing to do. Vance says that polls say it wasn't. Trump sounds like he wants to hear Vance explain that more in depth.
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Brodigan is Grand Poobah of this here website and when he isn't writing words about things enjoys day drinking, pro-wrestling, and country music. You can find him on the Twitter too.
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