Susie Wiles knew of JD Vance’s plans to make a social media post assigning blame to the Iran war for the Republican Party’s midterm wipeout before he shared it, a new report has revealed.
Three sources tell Reuters that Wiles, who was fired Friday as Trump’s chief of staff, was aware of the post and that the VP was not breaking with Trump by making it, extinguishing rumblings that Vance went rogue after Election Day.
“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote in his viral post. “The president himself said so last night.”
Vance added: “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.”
This was widely interpreted as his attempt to distance himself from Trump on the war, which has become the White House’s least popular issue, as he eyes his own presidential run in 2028.
For the first time, the post put the VP openly on the side of ending the war—even though his stance is somewhat of an open secret in Washington.
Trump has previously acknowledged the Iran war played a role in the Republican rout because of the resulting skyrocketing gas prices, but he has continued to defend it.
“I would have done nothing different,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Wiles and Vance’s relationship has had its ups and downs.
In December, Vanity Fair published a series of interviews with her and other top administration officials, in which she described the VP as a “conspiracy theorist for about a decade.”
But Vance rushed to defend her, and Wiles herself slammed the publication as a “disingenuously framed hit piece.”
After her demise in the White House became public, Vance said in a statement on social media: “Very grateful to Susie for her friendship and service to the president and our country. Stephen Miller is an amazing patriot and will do great things. Congrats to him on a well-deserved promotion!”
Reacting to Vance’s post about the reason behind the election results, Republican strategist Michael Ricci insisted he was “using his megaphone of the vice presidency to set the terms of debate” ahead of 2028, as reported by Reuters.
This comes as Trump told reporters he understood Vance’s perspective.
“I know how he feels about it,” he said. “I think it was fine.”
