Trump's would-be heirs brawl over who lost the GOP the midterms

Donald Trump strolled into the White House briefing room Monday with his own version of events: the war in Iran is 'militarily is effectively over,' he said, even as he insisted the U.S. stands ready to resume strikes. That same day, he questioned the legitimacy of the Republican midterm defeat and floated voting machines as the culprit — just days after promising he would accept the 2026 results.

The scramble to explain the wipeout, and to inherit his movement, is already in full swing. Vice President JD Vance blames the war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defends it. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says the party fought the wrong battles. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, in a post on X, called the results a 'Watergate-level repudiation' and pinned it on Trump's tariffs and the drawn-out Iran conflict.

Vance holds the most awkward hand. He entered the midterms as the clear heir, then wrote on X Wednesday, as results still trickled in, that 'the reason we lost is the war.' The CNBC Voter Poll complicates that: just 34% of House voters called the war crucial to their vote, against 49% who cited the cost of living and 55% who named government corruption. Conservative commentator Joel Pollak fired back on X that 'you can't campaign against a war from within an administration you serve.' Vance also has Ohio to explain — Amy Acton beat his ally Vivek Ramaswamy for governor, and former Sen. Sherrod Brown took the Senate seat Vance vacated by defeating Republican Jon Husted. Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., said Sunday he won't back Vance in 2028, calling the war criticism a betrayal and naming Rubio and Cruz instead. 'You have to be loyal to those people who brought you to the dance,' Fine told LiveNOW from FOX.

Rubio is running the opposite play: stand by the war, sidestep the loss. 'Sometimes, when you do the right thing, you don't know whether it's popular or not, but it's still the right thing to do,' he told reporters Sunday before leaving for France. He has denied plans to run in 2028 and mostly stayed off the trail, though his twin roles as secretary of state and national security advisor tie him to the foreign policy record Democrats will soon scrutinize — the House could vote this week on articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

DeSantis, free of the administration, is torching the whole playbook. At a news conference Wednesday in Tallahassee, the outgoing governor called the midterms 'close to an extinction-level event' for Republicans and said they 'really were fighting yesterday's battle' — a sharp jab from a man who built his profile on those same culture fights. He can point to Florida staying red, though Republican Byron Donalds won the governor's race by 1.3 points and Democrats picked up legislative ground. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., credited DeSantis on X with building a 'massive sea wall against the blue tsunami.'

Trump is hardly making the succession easy. He replaced Chief of Staff Susie Wiles with immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller and backed RNC Chairman Joe Gruters against a challenger demanding an accounting of the losses. In a CBS interview Sunday he praised Rubio alongside Vance but mused, 'Maybe I'm better off not getting involved,' while noting the weight his endorsement carries. Wealthy donors are already shopping beyond Vance, eyeing DeSantis and others, and the CNBC Voter Poll shows the coalition fraying — roughly two-thirds of Republican House voters under 30 approved of Trump's performance, versus nearly nine in 10 aged 65 and up. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin face the same trap. Vance's closing shot on X: 'If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost.'