JD Vance

New Republic -  Where did things go wrong? That question is often top of mind after a humiliating failure, so it’s hardly a surprise that Vice President JD Vance is asking it after the Republican Party lost both chambers of Congress in the largest midterm defeat since Watergate. What’s surprising is how he’s answering the question.

In a lengthy post Wednesday on X, Vance spun the GOP’s massive defeat by blaming the administration he serves in—and the president he serves under, in particular—for launching a deeply unpopular war on Iran. The veep’s goal is barely concealed: He wants to succeed Donald Trump in two short years, and he doesn’t want the stink of Iran or the 2026 midterms on him. So he publicly threw his boss under the bus in an essay on Elon Musk’s hellsite. It has to be one of the boldest and most shameless things a vice president has ever done.