Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Thursday that Vice President JD Vance has what it takes to be president, but warned that parts of his personality could make him a risky choice for the Oval Office.
Speaking directly to Vance during a livestream on his YouTube channel, Giuliani said he sees “presidential potential” in the vice president but also certain dangers in his personality that make him “a dangerous possibility as president.”
Giuliani’s remarks came in response to a lengthy post Vance published on X on Wednesday, in which the vice president pinned the blame for the GOP’s loss of both the House and Senate majorities on the war with Iran. Vance also cited the cost of living as a key factor.
That assessment put daylight between Vance and President Donald Trump, who has continued to defend the war and insist his administration made the right call in launching it.
Giuliani took issue with Vance’s reading of the results. He argued that a president needs flexibility of mind and cannot let slogans dominate his thinking, saying that was the impression Vance gave when he claimed the election was decided by the war. According to Giuliani, the war was only a secondary factor, not the main driver of the losses.
The former mayor, a longtime Trump ally, said Vance’s stance made him very nervous, pointing to Iran’s long record of hostility toward the United States. He noted that the regime has been burning effigies of Vance, Trump and the administration’s envoys and has threatened to kill American leaders for decades.
Vance’s post has drawn fire from both sides. Some Democrats pushed back by pointing out that the vice president supported Trump’s military operation in the Middle East. On the right, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, who served under President George W. Bush, argued on X that the real problem was not the war but the ceasefire, saying that if you start a war, you need to win it and finish it.
The U.S. launched the war against Iran alongside Israel on Feb. 28. Senate Republican sources have acknowledged the conflict was a major drag on the party in Tuesday’s elections, in which GOP candidates lost even in red states such as Texas, South Carolina and Kansas.
The fallout is already reshaping the early 2028 Republican landscape. Vance has long been viewed as the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, but many observers believe the midterm defeat, widely seen as a rebuke of the Trump White House, has dented his prospects. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have emerged as early beneficiaries as Republicans begin jockeying for position.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has also piled on, telling Politico that Vance has no credibility after spending two years in the White House without criticizing the administration.
Trump, meanwhile, is standing firm. On Friday, he declared on Truth Social that Israel and the entire Middle East would not exist today if he had not stopped Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
