Vance Gets Benched

By Abe Greenwald

Thursday, November 12, 2026

 

On the podcast, maybe a year ago, I ventured that Donald Trump’s second term would end with him and JD Vance on the outs. Today, I’m feeling confident about my prediction. Judging from Trump’s Truth Social post this morning, we seem to be way ahead of schedule.
For full effect, the post must be quoted in its entirety:

 

I have asked Vice President Vance to focus his complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States throughout the U.S. The Blue States, such as Minnesota, California, Illinois, and many more, are all poorly run, corrupt disasters. Billions of Dollars is being stolen each and every month. Our Budget could be quickly BALANCED with the correction of this large scale criminal activity. CORRUPTION is in the Democrat Leadership’s blood! We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed. We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT

 

I’ve got to praise Trump as an artist. That’s a remarkably skillful work of public humiliation.

 

At first, you think it’s about Trump siccing his best attack dog on corrupt Democrats, and then—boom—it’s about sending that dog off to a nice farm in the country so he can’t tear up the house anymore.

 

It would have been kinder had Trump expressly said that he’s casting Vance into the wilderness for incompetence on Iran and disloyalty after the midterms. Instead, by giving the reader the tools to figure it out, he creates compelling drama.   

 

Hey, it had to happen. After the midterm massacre, the vice president took to X to blame the GOP loss squarely on the president’s decision to attack Iran and, of course, on America’s alliance with Israel.

 

Vance was trying to distance himself from a military confrontation that the U.S. is still engaged in. That’s not merely disloyal to Trump; as Seth points out in a terrific post today, it’s emboldening to the regime in Iran. So, too, was Vance’s grousing about Israel.

 

But, as I’ve been known to say, it’s worse than that. Vance has spent a good year sucking up to media figures who’ve orchestrated a right-wing revolt against the Trump administration. To whatever extent it’s true that former Trump supporters voted Democratic in the midterms because of the Iran war and the U.S.-Israel relationship, it’s largely the work of

Vance’s friends and allies. A day before Election Day, Tucker Carlson tried to set off a panic, claiming that Trump was about to drop a nuclear weapon on Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain at the urging of Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

Vance himself has contributed mightily to the anti-Israel fever that he now blames for GOP losses. On Joe Rogan’s show, he claimed that an Israeli-funded influence operation blew up his U.S.-Iran cease-fire memorandum of understanding—when the Iranians simply rejected it. On the same episode, he stated, without evidence, that Jeffrey Epstein was a Mossad agent. And, of course, he likes to scold Israel or point out that its interests and America’s aren’t necessarily aligned.

 

Trump needs this? While he’s trying to win a war and turn around his presidency? Nope. So it’s desk duty for JD.   

 

I’ve never watched The Apprentice, but I now see the appeal. It is fun to watch Trump say, “You’re fired.”