Donald Trump was caught unawares by Vice President JD Vance’s detailed analysis of the midterm defeat and in fact he was angry, Laura Loomer has claimed. The far-right activist, who took a break from hosting her podcast after the GOP’s rout, said she was told this by a White House official. The President, however, made a public comment agreeing with what JD Vance said.Every move of Trump administration officials after the midterm loss has come under intense scrutiny and every development has a detailed backstory getting leaked to the media. For example, behind Vance’s 614-word statement, the story goes like this: It’s not known whether President Trump was aware of the post beforehand but Trump’s then chief of staff Susie Wiles was in the know. A day later, Susie Wiles was fired.Vance said the party lost the election because of the war. He said voters who had supported Trump and him in 2024 had switched to Democrats because they wanted the administration to end the war, focus on the cost of living and inflation, put America first and reconsider the US relationship with Israel.“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance wrote. He also questioned whether continuing the conflict had been worth the political cost of losing Republican control of the Senate.When Trump reacted to the analysis, he attempted a balance. He did not undermine JD Vance and partly agreed with JD’s takeaway but he also added that he would do it again even if he is electorally hurt because in the long run Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon.“It’s been brought to my attention by a WH official that President Trump was actually blindsided by the statement made about the Iran war the day after the election. He didn’t approve the statement and no, he wasn’t happy about it, despite how it’s being presented to the public. I’m told he was quite angry about it,” Loomer said.“It’s very interesting how there’s an entire ecosystem of people who have been brought in to force you to believe he approves of a statement that undermines his agenda. I don’t think it’s the last we will hear of it,” Loomer added.
JD Vance’s 614-word statement blaming war that apparently did not have Trump’s approval
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.