Some Republicans are blaming the Trump administration's attempts to negotiate peace in Iran for the GOP's bruising midterm defeat Tuesday.
One longtime administration official told the Daily Caller, however, that these "establishment ghouls" are really at fault for dragging the country into war in the first place.
Democrats took seven Senate seats and dozens of House seats in the 2026 midterms, flipping both chambers of Congress just two years after President Donald Trump won a decisive presidential election.
Although exit polls suggest the Iran war and the downstream economic consequences motivated Americans to stay home or vote Democrat, some within the GOP have tried to shift the blame to the administration's memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran. (RELATED: JD Vance Carves His Own Path With Blunt Assessment On Disastrous Midterms)
Marc Thiessen, who famously claimed there was "no downside to striking the Iranian regime," said the Iran war "went really well" and that the peace talks were to blame for the Republicans' midterm loss.
A longtime administration official rebuked this analysis in a statement to the Caller.
"Warmongering establishment ghouls are the only people disturbed by the thought of peace in the Middle East," the longtime administration official told the Caller. "It is a fact that the American people supported the MOU."
"Anyone saying otherwise is carrying water for the Neocon establishment that got us into this mess in the first place," they continued.
Vice President JD Vance, alongside Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, negotiated an MOU with leaders from both the United States and Iran, which they signed in June.
Although the agreement eventually fell through, some voices on the right claimed Americans soured on the war only after a peace deal was attempted.
Two Senators tell me the Vice President is right that the GOP turned against the Iran war in the Senate GOP’s own polling. But they say what the VP leaves out is that the turn came after the VP negotiated a bad deal with the Iranian regime that repulsed the GOP.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) November 4, 2026
The failure wasn’t responding to Iran.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) November 6, 2026
The failure was refusing to follow through, believing that a murderous mullah regime wants peace, and participating in MOU theater.
According to @marcthiessen: “It wasn't the Iran war that was the problem on the election day. It was the Iran MOU” pic.twitter.com/OwOhXXS29L
— Larry Kudlow (@larry_kudlow) November 5, 2026
BREAKING: President Trump agrees republicans lost the midterm elections because of the Iran War. pic.twitter.com/AQ2rb3y7hV
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 4, 2026
It's simply not true that Americans' problem with the war was the MOU. pic.twitter.com/KorlvxPc1M
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) November 6, 2026
The economic consequences of Trump's joint war with Israel against Iran almost immediately began to tank his approval rating. In contrast, the period when the MOU was being negotiated briefly improved Trump's approval rating on gas prices and the economy.
Wow. From Raymond James. Trump approval mapped onto average gas prices. pic.twitter.com/dcSgGg8NL6
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) November 3, 2026
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…
— JD Vance (@JDVance) November 4, 2026
"The reason we lost is the war," Vance said. "The president himself said so last night."
The president reiterated this point when he was asked about Vance's remarks Wednesday afternoon, the day after election night.
"I think it's largely true because it drove the gas prices up a little bit short term," Trump said of Vance's statement. "But at the same time, if I had to do it again, I'd have to do it again."
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