A close ally of JD Vance has said the war in Iran has ended up “overthrowing the regime in Washington” rather than the one in Tehran.
Conservative blogger Rob Dreher told the BBC that Donald Trump’s second term in office is effectively in the wake of the Republican Party’s defeat to the Democrats in the US midterm elections.
The Democrats seized control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate as American voters delivered a damning verdict of Trump’s record, particularly his decision to go to war in Iran.
On Radio 4’s Today programme, Dreher, a long-time friend of the US vice-president, said: “The war has kept gasoline and diesel prices so very very high and put so much stress on ordinary Americans. Donald Trump didn’t seem to care about this, but we now see the result of his indifference.”
Vance publicly turned on Trump in the wake of the midterms by declaring “everyone” knows the Republicans lost because of the war.
Dreher said: “JD Vance is in a very difficult position. He’s come out now and staked the position of being against the war … but will Trump actually stop the war? Nobody really knows.”
“It would be extraordinary for President Trump to back down now, but nevertheless the American people have spoken, and if Trump continues to pursue this war … it’s only going to be worse and worse for the Republican Party and for JD Vance.”
He added: “President Trump launched this war arrogantly thinking it was going to be a quick thing like the Venezuela operation, and now it’s dragged out for most of this year and has ended up not overthrowing the regime in Tehran, but overthrowing the regime in Washington, which is an extraordinary historical event.
“I don’t know how Trump is going to get out of this. The Iranians are no doubt taking pleasure in bleeding him out as much as possible, but now that they’ve ended up essentially ending his presidency, maybe they will be exhausted and will be willing to come to terms.”
Dreher said Trump is now the Democrats’ “secret weapon to win the presidency in 2028”.
He said: “The Democrats have thumping majorities in both houses. They’re going to use the next two years to drag every one of Trump’s insiders before Congress and interrogate them about corruption, about the war, about everything imaginable.
“But I think they’re going to leave Trump alone because having Trump in the White House running his mouth and being Donald Trump is their secret weapon to win the presidency in 2028. It’s going to be a nightmare for the next two years.”
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