Donald Trump Jr. draws attention after backing JD Vance’s Iran criticism
Published 23:50 4 Nov 2026 GMT
Trump's eldest son appears to have sided with JD Vance after the he blamed his father's war with Iran for the Republicans' midterms losses
Donald Trump Jr. has backed JD Vance after he launched a scathing attack on his dad following the Republican party’s performance in the midterms.
Trump’s Republican party lost control of both the House and the Senate in the midterms, in scenes that were branded ‘worse than anyone thought’.
The elections will help shape the final two years of Trump’s second and final term as President and mean the Republicans’ power in the US will be limited.
And, as you might have expected, most Republicans aren’t taking the loss too well, with Trump already promising to 'do something big' in response’.
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Meanwhile, Vice-President Vance laid the blame at Trump’s war against Iran.
In a lengthy post shared on X, Vance said ‘the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone’.
JD Vance issued a scathing attack on President Donald Trump (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
"The reason we lost is the war,” he continued. “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.”
Trump has since acknowledged the Iran war impacted the elections but said the ‘Iran thing’ was something he had to do.
Hitting back, he told reporters: "The Iran thing we had to do, and we continue to do it.”
He continued: "I can tell you that as far as that war is concerned, I would have done nothing different.”
Trump also said that if he had been on the ballot, he believed 'we would have won'.
"But they just, you couldn't transfer that love. There was such love at those rallies, it was incredible and we weren't able to transfer the love to candidates," he said.
However, it seems his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. has sided with the VP.
Trump Jr shared Vance’s post onto his own X account, and wrote: ‘every word of this is...' before adding three Hundred Points emojis.
Iranian officials have also suggested the midterm results were due to the conflict.
Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, wrote on X: “Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message.”
"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 p****d 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 p****d 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 p****d at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country."
Featured Image Credit: Tom Brenner/Getty Images
Topics: US News, Politics, Donald Trump