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Susie Wiles Revealed to Have Backed Vance in Civil War Before Firing

The VP’s post assigning blame for the midterms wipeout blindsided many in Washington—but not the recently fired White House chief of staff.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance will suffer for being so close to President Donald Trump.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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.”

An excerpt from a JD Vance post, reading: 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 merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up. 

So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us."

Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.  

There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true. 

But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.

Vance was lockstep with the president on the Iran War, until a day after a massive midterm loss in both chambers of congress.

JD Vance/X

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.

Trump with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the Oval Office in April. Republicans believe new faces might be needed to remain competitive in the 2028 election.

Vice President JD Vance, 42, is the Republican frontrunner for 2028 on prediction markets like Kalshi.

Kylie Cooper/REUTERS

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.”

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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.”

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