“Even politics must have rules,” Fleischer warned in a social media post last August. “Gerrymandering should be done once every ten years — by all states. Otherwise, there are no rules and it’s the equivalent of all-out, political wars all the time — simply to gain power.”

His warning came back to haunt his Republican allies after Virginia voters gave Democrats a huge win Monday night, creating a gerrymandered map that includes 10 districts likely to elect a Democrat to the U.S. House — and just one predicted to go to a Republican.

Fleischer, who was White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, told his followers Tuesday on X, “Tonight is a good night to repeat what I said last August when Texas started this mid-cycle redistricting chain reaction.”

“Politics has to be more than a power grab. By either party. There have to be rules that everyone follows,” Fleischer said. “Otherwise, it’s all about power and pretty soon there won’t be much left that holds our nation together.”

The Democrats’ win in Virginia comes amid a redistricting war, first pushed by President Donald Trump in red states like Texas, Ohio, North Carolina and Missouri, where he urged congressional districts to be redrawn before the usual 10-year mark to favor Republicans. Democrats returned fire by redrawing the maps in blue states like Virginia and California.

The president warned Virginians leading up to the vote that if Democrats won more seats in the House, “they’re going to be making changes at the federal levels.”

“If you’re going to pick a fight, at least win it. The other side will always fight back,” Fleischer wrote Tuesday. “All this was foreseeable and avoidable. We should not have started this fight.”