Daniel Wolfram
It seems that Vice President JD Vance is attempting to walk a tightrope between breaking with Trump while still trying to appeal to the MAGA crowd ahead of his 2028 presidential bid.
On Wednesday, JD Vance broke ranks by blaming the War in Iran as the sole reason for the Republican election wipeout on Tuesday. Vance posted a 600-word tirade on social media, where the vice president pointed out that Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition simply refused to show up.
“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote. “The president himself said so last night.”
“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest,” Vance said.
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A defeated Trump agreed with Vance
Going against Trump that dramatically usually means political exodus from the GOP. But we have now entered a new world where Trump simply does not have that authority anymore after a political beating not seen since 1974.
The president responded to a reporter’s question about Vance’s post with unusual restraint, agreeing that the conflict had “largely” swayed voters even as he insisted he would “do it again” to stop a hostile nuclear program.
“I knew that when I went in, and we stopped them from having a nuclear weapon, and they will never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters.
In reality, Trump had no interest in answering that question and quickly redirected the reporters’ attention to the new helipad he is building along with the new White House ballroom.
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Pundits were quick to point out that Vance is separating himself from Trump because he wants to become president in two years.
The statement looked like “a way of separating himself from Trump,” Daniel Byman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies noted. Republican strategist Ashley Davis told the BBC that Vance clearly wanted to “put his toe in the water to see what he’s going to do.”
A ‘New Right’ alliance
Around the same time that Vance posted his ultra-long tweet, a report was also published on Fox News about Vance trying to break with Trump to create what he has dubbed a “New Right.”
Essentially, a “New Right” is a coalition aligned with Trump’s original “America First” movement that also believes Trump is too aligned with Israel on foreign policy. That new coalition is aimed at Republicans who still support the president, but feel betrayed by his foreign policy.
Vance ended his very long post with what can only be described as a pitch with a crisp four-point plan: “1) End the war 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel.” That indeed sounds like a different direction for new, right-wing policies.
