In an opinion piece for The New Republic, Alex Shephard argues that after the Republicans' 2026 midterm defeat, JD Vance's lengthy post on X blaming Donald Trump's war on Iran is a shameless bid to succeed Trump in 2028 by rescuing MAGA from the president without the war's stink. Vance, Trump himself in a Wall Street Journal interview, and Trump Jr. all point to the war as a reason for the loss, which Shephard calls the Republicans' worst since Watergate.