Susie Wiles backed JD Vance’s Iran war criticism before Trump replaced her
WASHINGTON, DC: Susie Wiles, who served as White House chief of staff, knew ahead of time that Vice President JD Vance planned to blame the GOP's midterm election losses on the Iran war. Three people with direct knowledge of the White House's discussions with Vance's team told Reuters that Wiles knew about his social media post before it appeared, contradicting reports that Vance had blindsided President Trump.
Vance's statement went up just a day after Republicans suffered major losses in the 2026 midterms, losing both the House and Senate to Democrats. "The reason we lost is the war," Vance wrote, questioning whether the administration's support for the conflict was worth the political cost of losing the Senate for years. The revelation came as Trump replaced Wiles as chief of staff on Friday.
Susie Wiles knew JD Vance planned to blame Iran war for GOP losses
Vance's remarks struck many as an attempt to distance himself from Trump over the Iran war, which has become a major political headache for the administration. However, three sources who spoke with Reuters said Wiles had approved Vance's post before he published it, indicating that he was not acting independently or breaking with the president without the White House's knowledge.
In his lengthy November 4 post, Vance discussed the factors behind the Republican defeat and argued that the party's voters had turned against its candidates over several issues, including the Iran war, inflation and the administration's relationship with Israel.
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 war 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel Our 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
"The reason we lost is the war," Vance wrote in his post. "The president himself said so last night."
Vance added: "If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest."
The remarks were widely interpreted as an attempt to distance himself from Trump on the war, which has become one of the administration's least popular issues, as Vance considers a possible presidential run in 2028.
The post also put the vice president publicly on the side of ending the war, although his reservations about the conflict had reportedly been an open secret in Washington.
Trump previously acknowledged that the Iran war played a role in the Republican losses because of the resulting surge in gas prices. However, he continued to defend the administration's position on the conflict.
JD Vance and Susie Wiles had a complicated relationship
In December, Vanity Fair published a series of interviews with Wiles and other senior administration officials, in which she described the vice president as a "conspiracy theorist for about a decade."
However, Vance rushed to defend her, while Wiles herself criticized the publication, calling its coverage a "disingenuously framed hit piece."
Following news of her departure from the White House, Vance praised Wiles in a statement on social media.
"Very grateful to Susie for her friendship and service to the president and our country. Stephen Miller is an amazing patriot and will do great things. Congrats to him on a well-deserved promotion!" he wrote.
Reacting to Vance's post about the reasons behind the election results, Republican strategist Michael Ricci said the vice president was "using his megaphone of the vice presidency to set the terms of debate" ahead of 2028, Reuters reported
Trump also addressed Vance's remarks, telling reporters that he understood the vice president's perspective.
"I know how he feels about it," Trump said. "I think it was fine."
