Trump’s 2028 GOP successors split over midterm election losses

Republicans are still reckoning with a historic midterm wipeout, but the fight to assign blame and inherit President Donald Trump’s political movement is already underway.

Vice President JD Vance faults the war in Iran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defends it. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says Republicans fought the wrong battles. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, argues the party lost touch with voters’ economic struggles.

The competing visions from potential presidential contenders offer an early glimpse of the Republican infighting ahead of 2028. But all face the same dilemma: How to convince voters the party can change course without alienating Trump or the MAGA base they need to win the nomination.

The biggest obstacle may be Trump himself, who has shown little appetite for a political retreat.

On Monday, Trump made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room, declaring the Iran war “militarily is effectively over” while maintaining that the U.S. remains prepared to resume strikes. Earlier that day, he questioned the legitimacy of Republicans’ midterm defeat, suggesting without evidence that voting machines were responsible, days after saying that after years of election denial, he would accept the 2026 results.

Since the election, Trump has also replaced Chief of Staff Susie Wiles with immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller and backed Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters against a challenger demanding an accounting of the party’s losses.

Trump is also keeping his would-be successors guessing. In a CBS interview Sunday, he praised Rubio alongside Vance but suggested he might stay out of the 2028 Republican primary.

“Maybe I’m better off not getting involved,” he said, while emphasizing the weight his endorsement could carry.

That dynamic leaves Vance in a precarious position. Entering the midterms as the clear political heir, Vance now faces a critical question: Can he inherit MAGA without inheriting the blame for Trump’s presidency?

In a lengthy post on X Wednesday as election results were still trickling in, Vance challenged Trump’s initial explanation for the Republican defeat.

“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote, arguing voters who backed the Trump-Vance ticket in 2024 abandoned Republicans in 2026 over Iran.

Pointing to foreign policy allows Vance to criticize a defining administration decision without repudiating the broader MAGA movement, while echoing his longstanding opposition to foreign interventions. Vance also has national name recognition and donor ties to help his prospective candidacy.

But the election results complicate Vance’s argument.

Just 34% of House voters called the war crucial to their vote, versus 49% citing the cost of living and 55% government corruption, according to the CNBC Voter Poll – suggesting a broader backlash against the Trump administration that Vance has spent nearly two years defending.

“You can’t campaign against a war from within an administration you serve,” conservative…