JD Vance threw Trump straight under the bus for the election disaster, but the internet isn’t buying his handwashing – 24 cutting clapbacks

While Donald Trump was busy posting memes to make it clear he can spend two years playing his veto card, JD Vance was out there writing a veritable novel on Twitter.

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

Here’s the tl;dr version –

The Republicans mainly lost because of the Iran War, as well as the cost of living, the USA’s relationship with Israel, and a sense that the administration hasn’t put America first. The war wasn’t worth the cost of losing control of the Senate for the next two, possibly four years.

The interesting part is this –

‘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.’

That calls out the president’s position.

President Trump admitted the war & price of gas was the primary reason we lost races in midterms as a lot thought.

Why do you think no other President tackled the situation with the nuclear bomb in Iran? 🇮🇷 They didn’t have the balls & knew it would cause them to lose votes.

He sacrificed a lot for the safety of our country and the world! History should be kind to him.

— PammsyNow (@NowPammsy) November 5, 2026

It’s the first public schism at the top of the administration.

A reporter asked Donald Trump what he thought of the post, and this was his reply.

Q: The vice president wrote a very lengthy post about how the war impacted the results last night. Did you know he was going to do that?

Trump: I know how he feels about it. I thought it was good. https://t.co/XxdtQ7soDc

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 4, 2026

There is as much chance of Donald Trump having read the VP’s post as there is of him introducing Tofu Tuesdays to the Mar-a-lago menu.

Vance’s attempt to distance himself from Trump got a resounding ‘Nice try, but no’ from the internet.