JD Vance said on Wednesday that the war against Iran doomed the Republican party in the US midterm elections, which are widely seen as a sweeping rebuke of Donald Trump’s presidency.

The intervention signals that the vice-president, once the face of the Trump administration’s deal-making efforts with Tehran, seeks to distance himself from the unpopular conflict ahead of a possible 2028 White House run.

“The real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone … The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance said in a lengthy post on X. “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.”

“Everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there,” added Vance, who had reportedly been sceptical about the unresolved war, which Trump launched in February alongside Israel.

Trump had made a similar statement on Tuesday to the Wall Street Journal as his party faced historic defeat in the election.

“Iran was a piece of it,” he said in the phone interview when asked about the impact of the war on the election. But he also hedged and said he had no regrets about starting the conflict.

“I don’t think about it. I did the right thing. I would have done it again,” he said.

More details soon …