Michael Goodwin: JD Vance sold Trump out after the midterm shellacking — it’s time to cut him off

Following the Democrats’ extraordinary rout in the midterm elections, it was inevitable that the Trump White House would react with finger-pointing and an off-with-their-heads approach to staff changes.

And so it has, and there is certainly more bloodletting to come. My only quibble is that the first person thrown overboard is the wrong person.

Instead of removing the capable and loyal Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and replacing her with the combative Stephen Miller, President Trump should have fired Vice President JD Vance.

Unfortunately, he can’t under the Constitution because Vance was elected and is not an appointed staff member or a Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretary.

Still, Vance’s decision to wave the white flag of surrender early Wednesday morning was a breathtaking breach of loyalty.

It was also political weakness writ large. For once, Trump has been too kind in his noncommittal response.

In a long statement on X, Vance shamefully tried to separate himself from the stalemate in Iran and the elections. He offered absolutely no defense of the Trump-Vance administration’s policies and decision-making.

He failed to mention what Trump repeatedly says about the war. To wit, that the goal was and is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, which it had vowed to use against Israel and the United States.

Does Vance instead favor the approach that Dems Barack Obama and Joe Biden pursued for 12 years, which was to bribe the mad mullahs with cash and lift sanctions while accepting that the infusion of dollars would be shared with regional terror proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah?

Presidential bid

Vance doesn’t say, nor does he mention that he was the lead negotiator in the mediated talks that produced the lingering cease-fire, which led Iran to claim it could control oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

In effect, his own actions and missteps do not appear in his condemnation of the war. A fair conclusion is that, in his mind, he is the innocent good guy with the best of intentions while all the blame belongs to the crazy guy in the red hat.

In many outlets, the post-election statement has been called Vance’s opening remarks for a 2028 presidential run.

True, except he sounded as if he was unsure which party he would be running in. On Iran, he is closer to the Dems’ position, which is to pacify the regime and kick the can down the road for another 50 years of Islamist terrorism.

When I first read his statement, I assumed it was prelude to a longer defense of the war and an explanation of how victory would resolve the inflation and terrorism issues.

He might also have pointed to the American economy and labor market, which are remarkably strong despite the Iranian headwinds.

None of that was there, but Vance instead validated the election results by citing unnamed pollsters. He credited one with seeing in advance that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats.

Good work, Sherlock. That’s what all the polls were saying for months. But Vance takes that vast amount of information and boils it down to four reasons why the GOP was mauled by opponents and abandoned by many supporters.

He writes that the pollster told him that former supporters who voted blue did so because they wanted the White House to:

1. End the war
2. Focus on cost of living/inflation
3. Put America First
4. Change our relationship to Israel

He breezily summarizes them this way: “The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.”

He adds, “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. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.”

Dishonest

What’s dishonest is that Vance ignores the election impact of Trump’s tiresome personal conduct, including his obsession with building a victory arch, his nonstop feuds and his family’s profiting off his presidency.

Vance is also dishonest in conveniently ignoring his own odd conduct. This is not the first time he’s tried to separate himself from the war, which is an unusual breach for any vice president.

Yet here he is, insisting on the morning after that “everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”

His decision to throw Israel under the bus is a gutter move. To even suggest that Israel is the reason we are in the war puts him in league with Jew-hating Dems. It sounds as if the veep has been hanging out with Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed.

While it’s necessary to constantly reassess our relationship with allies, for him to focus only on Israel is obscene. We have a close common alliance because we are both targets of Iran and because Israel is the only democracy in the region and the eternal homeland of the Jews.

What about our shaky relationship with NATO? Vance doesn’t say a peep about how our so-called longest allies refused to help tame the Iranian beast, even when it involved keeping open the oil shipping lanes.

The sorry episode has me thinking back to Trump’s decision to put him on the ’24 ticket. Vance had often denounced the president before Trump helped him get elected to the Senate, then he became an ally.

How much of an ally became clear in June of that year when Trump was casting about for a running mate. He routinely sought the opinion of anybody and everybody within ear shot.

Sometimes he would throw out a name to get a reaction, and I was privy to a conversation where he asked about Vance.

Running mate

Reports had surfaced that Vance was the front-runner because he had the backing of Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump Jr.

When I asked why Vance had the inside track, Trump responded: “The base really wants him.”

When someone noted, “but, you’re the base,” Trump shrugged, and changed the topic.

During the campaign, Vance was assigned to focus on the Midwestern swing states and helped to move them into the winning Trump column.

He also did a masterful job in shredding his Dem opponent, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in their lone debate.

Whatever happened to that JD Vance?