The GOP’s Post-Midterms Scramble Is Pure “Survivor”

Mother Jones illustration; Chuck Snyder/CBS/Getty; Robert Voets/CBS/Getty; Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. The show Survivor is currently airing its 51st season, and you might think that after 25 years of television, every kind of strategizing and maneuvering has already been tried. But this fall, one contestant is making an attempt to manipulate his fellow contestants in a different way: by using honesty. Conventional Survivor strategy entails keeping your cards close to your vest, lying to people’s faces so that your target doesn’t see the vote coming. But current contestant Devin Way’s strategy is to appear trustworthy so that he can more easily deceive down the line. “My whole thing now is weaponized honesty,” Way said at the start of the second episode, after ending up on the wrong side of the vote. Another scramble is taking place after a different kind of vote: After the Republican Party suffered historic losses across the country this past Tuesday, many prominent GOP figures are scurrying to mitigate the damage. Texas Senator Ted Cruz went on X to call the results “a blue tsunami” and “a Watergate level repudiation.” House Speaker Mike Johnson, who told CBS in October that if Republicans lost the majority, “my intention is to stay and serve,” told his staff Wednesday morning that he won’t run for minority leader. And President Donald Trump admitted his war in Iran hurt Republicans—though he insisted, “if I had to do it again, I’d have to do it again.” Vice President JD Vance has taken a page straight out of the Survivor season 51 playbook. On Wednesday, he posted a roughly 600-word diatribe on X that has the veneer of an honest assessment of why so many voters turned on the GOP. “The reason we lost is the war,” he wrote. “Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.” Donald Trump Jr. reposted it with three 💯 emojis. But where was all this honesty before election night? In September, as missile strikes on Iran continued, Vance told reporters, “I wouldn’t call it a war right now.” In mid-October, he said at a CBS town hall that in “some ways” the US had “won decisively.” His honesty showed up only once it was useful, which makes it look a lot like a manipulation tactic, especially from a man widely seen as Trump’s potential heir. At the first tribal council this Survivor season, Devin Way put everything out in the open. (Warning: spoilers ahead.) As everyone around him whispered about last-minute plans, he made it known that he planned to vote for his tribe-mate Jenna, but was blindsided himself when his ally Aaliyah left instead. His strategy, meant to show his tribe-mates exactly where he stood, mostly gave them what they needed to plan around him. Vance and the Republican party are trying a similar sleight of hand: appearing to show the American people where they stand in hopes of winning them back. But as Tuesday’s outcome made clear, the American people aren’t buying it.