Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

Is The Blue Tsunami JD Vance’s Vindication?

Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

The dust has begun to settle after the Republican Party’s worst midterm defeat in half a century. And as it becomes clear that the Iran war is the main culprit behind the GOP’s wipeout, the finger-pointing has begun.

Cynically seeking to ding his 2028 prospects, two camps — the left and warmongers on the right — are training their attacks on Vice President JD Vance. The left claims Vance bears responsibility for failing to prevent the war, while the war’s most ardent apologists are bizarrely accusing him of disloyalty to President Donald Trump and of undermining the war effort by promoting peace.

Both of those claims are, of course, false.

Democrats’ attacks on Vance for the war make zero sense when one recalls that it was Vance who was the only voice in the room against going to war in the first place.

Vance spoke plainly of the risks: many Americans who voted for the ticket in 2024 in part because of Trump’s impressive record of no new wars would be unhappy with the decision.

Of course, as any good vice president should, Vance also understood his role as to provide the president with the best counsel he could and then support him unambiguously once the decision was made. And that is precisely what Vance has done since, working tirelessly to articulate the administration’s agenda at home and abroad to Americans.

But even more nonsensical is the notion that Vance has been “disloyal” to the president.

At every moment since Tuesday, the president and vice president have been clearly in lockstep. On multiple occasions, Trump has made clear he agreed with the vice president’s lengthy post on X noting that the war hurt Republicans’ electoral fortunes.

When Vance cited polling showing that ending the war, focusing more on domestic issues, and readjusting America’s relationships abroad were top priorities for voters, foreign policy hawks cried foul.

George Bush strategist Karl Rove accused Vance of being a “neo-isolationist” who — unironically on Rove’s part — holds views that would “bankrupt our economy.” Republican Florida Rep. Randy Fine essentially accused the vice president of being a Nazi, akin to the smears radical leftists have directed at conservatives for years.

Of course, when President Trump cited the exact same issues when asked about the midterm rout, the likes of Fine and Rove were notably silent.

Moreover, it is Vance whom Trump entrusted with leading negotiations to reach a diplomatic solution to hostilities after they began. And never mind the countless times the president’s own press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, maintained that Trump’s preference was always diplomacy first.

And as the war’s biggest cheerleaders—from the likes of Mark Levin to the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board and the rest of the aging DC establishment—lambasted the vice president daily for seeking to end the war, he steered clear of the bluster. Vance pushed for a deal that would put Americans and our military in the strongest position possible.

The Memorandum of Understanding that Vance spearheaded for the administration implemented a ceasefire and reopened the Strait of Hormuz to toll-free commercial shipping.

While critics like Ted Cruz attacked Vance for negotiating the deal, the memorandum was popular. Other data bore out the vice president’s position: when the memorandum was in force, the GOP narrowed Democrats’ edge in the polls.

So, as Vance increasingly comes under bad-faith attacks from the warmongers who in large part cost the GOP the midterms, the sober-minded should be able to see that the results of November 3 were a clear vindication of the vice president’s warnings about the war.

And as for the accusations of disloyalty—mostly coming from people who have fought repeatedly against President Trump and his America First agenda on everything from tackling drug prices to enforcing the border—Vance has been as devoted an advisor and confidant as anyone in the Trump administration.

The truth is that the foreign war-absolutists are becoming increasingly desperate because, deep down, they know Vance is right. And they’re going all-out against him now because they know he’s the biggest threat to their decades-long stranglehold on the Republican Party. If we want to bring young Americans, my peers, back into the Republican coalition, we cannot let the hawks spin themselves out of their own mess.

Gabe Guidarini serves as Chief of Staff for the Ohio Young Republicans, established in 1935. He previously served as Chairman of the Ohio College Republican Federation.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.