VIRGINIA BEACH — As part of the nation&#8217;s celebration of the U.S. military&#8217;s 250th anniversary, Vice President JD Vance praised the valor of American service members on Wednesday and pledged that the Trump administration would never send them to war without clearly explaining the mission.
Speaking at Naval Air Station Oceana on Wednesday morning, Vance joined hundreds of sailors and aviators in celebrating America&#8217;s 250th anniversary, highlighting what the White House described as its efforts to support American warfighters and veterans.
Hundreds of sailors gathered beneath massive American flags welcomed the vice president with applause as he strode into the hangar.
Vance singled out Carrier Air Wing 8, which is made up of several squadrons that included service members who took part in &#8220;Operation Epic Fury,&#8221; the administration&#8217;s war effort against Iran.
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“I think that you deserve to have a clearly defined objective, I think you deserve to have a president of the United States who believes in you and gives you the weapons to win,&#8221; the vice president told the service members on Wednesday.
&#8220;And I believe that you have a presidential leadership today that will never ask you to go to war unless he’s telling you why you&#8217;re going to war,&#8221; he added.
<div id="attachment_1127109" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jd-vance-to-troops-you-will-always-know-why-youre-heading-to-war/vice-president-jd-vance-visits-naval-air-station-oceana-in-virginia-beach-2" rel="attachment wp-att-1127109"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1127109" class="wp-image-1127109 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2283604275-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2283604275-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2283604275-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2283604275-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/GettyImages-2283604275.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>US military members look on before Vice President JD Vance speaks at an event marking 250 years of the American military at Naval Air Station Oceana on July 1, 2026, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. (Photo by Ken Cedeno &#8211; Pool/Getty Images)</div>
The vice president also defended the current state of negotiations with Iran, which have started to crack in the past weeks with strikes from both sides.
&#8220;There are people in this country who want you to keep going and keep going, and attack the president of the United States for using the leverage that you gave him, to engage in negotiation,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Why do we engage in negotiation? Because of you, it&#8217;s not out of weakness, but it&#8217;s out of strength.&#8221;
Vance told the assembled troops that the military and American intelligence estimate that Iran&#8217;s nuclear program is further away from developing a nuclear bomb &#8220;than they have ever been&#8221; in the last 30 years.
&#8220;That is because of you, and because of your hard work,&#8221; he emphasized.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: <a href="https://x.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VP</a> receives a warm welcome at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach 🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/Vou67n8zRh">pic.twitter.com/Vou67n8zRh</a>
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://x.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/2072370585334579529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2026</a></blockquote>
Throughout his remarks, Vance repeatedly returned to the sacrifices made by American service members, arguing that military strength gives the United States the leverage to pursue peace through negotiation.
Following his remarks, Vance took questions from reporters before boarding Air Force Two to head home.
&#8220;Right now the talks are going well,&#8221; he said of the talks taking place with Iran in Doha, &#8220;it&#8217;s still pretty early, but, talks are going well.&#8221;
The Daily Wire also pressed Vance on the recent Supreme Court rulings, asking whether he believes Justice Samuel Alito will retire, as NPR falsely reported on Tuesday.
&#8220;Justice Alito is such an amazing guy. He would be irreplaceable,” Vance told The Daily Wire. &#8220;But if he retired, that&#8217;s up to him, and we would try to do the best job in finding a proper replacement.&#8221;
Pressed to weigh in on the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding birthright citizenship and whether he’s upset with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Vance said he thinks Barrett made a mistake.
“Well, look, do I think she made a mistake in the ruling?&#8221; he asked The Daily Wire. &#8220;I do. I don’t know how anybody can say that if a person who is an illegal alien, or a person, for example, who’s pregnant and comes to the United States on a vacation, they have a baby, and all of a sudden their entire family gets the benefits of American citizenship.&#8221;
“I don’t think that’s what the framers of the 14th Amendment had in mind,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I don’t think it’s the right case, but look, it was 5-4. Sometimes the Supreme Court makes mistakes, we’re going to try to correct that mistake, but nobody’s perfect, including the Supreme Court.&#8221;
And asked by The Daily Wire about remarks from Democrat Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said earlier this week that she would love it if Vance ran for president in 2028, the vice president responded: &#8220;I don’t think much about 2028 as you know. My attitude is: let’s do a good job now, let’s continue to try and make some wins for the American people. We can worry about the future when the future comes.&#8221;
&#8220;We got an important midterm election here,&#8221; he added.
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Vice President JD Vance Visits Naval Air Station Oceana In Virginia Beach

JD Vance To Troops: You Will Always Know Why You’re Heading To War

America 250

JD Vance

Military

Politics

U.S. Navy

Daily Wire White House Correspondent <a href="mailto:molohan@dailywire.com">Mary Margaret Olohan</a> on Wednesday pressed Vice President JD Vance to weigh in on the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding birthright citizenship and whether he&#8217;s upset with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-365_4hdj.pdf">In a landmark ruling</a> authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court held that children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.
Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, joined Roberts in the decision, which dealt a blow to the Trump administration’s immigration agenda and drew strong backlash from conservatives.
“Some conservatives are angry with Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Are you one of them?” Olohan asked Vance after he delivered remarks to troops in Virginia Beach. 
“Well, look, do I think she made a mistake in the ruling? I do. I don&#8217;t know how anybody can say that if a person who is an illegal alien, or a person, for example, who&#8217;s pregnant and comes to the United States on a vacation, they have a baby, and all of a sudden their entire family gets the benefits of American citizenship,” Vance said. 
“I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s what the framers of the 14th Amendment had in mind. I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s the right case, but look, it was 5-4. Sometimes the Supreme Court makes mistakes, we&#8217;re going to try to correct that mistake, but nobody&#8217;s perfect, including the Supreme Court,” Vance added. 
The Daily Wire also asked the Vice President about speculation — and a bogus NPR report — claiming Justice Samuel Alito will soon retire from the bench. 
“I don&#8217;t know, you know, Justice Alito is such an amazing guy, and I think the Supreme Court, he would be irreplaceable, but of course, if he retired, that&#8217;s up to him, and we would try to do the best job we could at finding a proper replacement,&#8221; Vance told The Daily Wire. 
Vance also responded to The Daily Wire’s question about why Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez <a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/2072096503724908646?s=20">hopes</a> that the vice president leads the 2028 Republican ticket.
“I don&#8217;t think much about 2028, as you know,” Vance said to Olohan. &#8220;My attitude is, let&#8217;s do a good job now, let&#8217;s continue to try to make some wins for the American people. We can worry about the future when the future comes, but we got an important midterm election here. We got to keep the people in Congress who&#8217;ve been fighting for our troops and our veterans.&#8221;
“That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m focused on,” he said.
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Credit: CSPAN
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JD Vance/Amy Coney Barrett

Daily Wire Asks JD Vance If He’s Angry With Barrett Over SCOTUS Loss

Amy Coney Barrett

birthright citizenship

News

Supreme Court

Far-Left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) nearly blushed and giggled when she was asked this week about likely leading the Democratic field of presidential hopefuls.
A reporter asked AOC for her thoughts after Vice President JD Vance remarked in an interview that she was leading other Democrats in the race to become the presidential nominee. After smiling and biting her lip, the New York City rep took a playful jab at Vance, saying that she hoped Vance would be the GOP nominee, suggesting Vance would be easy for her or another Democrat to defeat.
&#8220;JD Vance just said in an interview that he thinks you are going to be the leading Democratic candidate to run for president in 2028. What&#8217;s your response to that?&#8221; a reporter asked AOC.
&#8220;I mean, ya know — I hope he is [the Republican nominee], that&#8217;s what I&#8217;ll say,&#8221; she responded.
Watch:
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Reporter: JD Vance just said in an interview that he thinks you are going to be the leading Democratic candidate for president in 2028. What’s your response to that?
AOC: <a href="https://t.co/s5qodMBiN1">pic.twitter.com/s5qodMBiN1</a>
— Acyn (@Acyn) <a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/2072096503724908646?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 30, 2026</a></blockquote>
AOC has kept the door open to running for a higher office, including U.S. Senator or President of the United States. In May, when she was asked about running for either of these positions, she told David Axelrod that her ambition is to &#8220;change the country,&#8221; in whatever way that may be.
&#8220;[The elites] assume that my ambition is a title or a seat, and my ambition is way bigger than that,&#8221; AOC said at the conference. &#8220;My ambition is to change this country. Presidents come and go. Senate, House seats, elected officials, come and go, but single-payer healthcare is forever, a living wage is forever, workers&#8217; rights are forever, women&#8217;s rights, all of that.&#8221;
&#8220;When you aren&#8217;t attached &#8230; when you haven&#8217;t been like fantasizing about being this or that since the time you were 7 years old, it is tremendously liberating,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;I get to wake up every day and say, &#8216;How am I going to meet the moment?&#8217; And conditions change radically all the time, so I make my response less to an attachment to some positional &#8230; title or position, and working backwards from there, but I make decisions by waking up in the morning, looking out the window, and observing the conditions of this country, and saying, &#8216;What move or what decision can I make today that is going to get us closer to that future, stronger, faster, better than yesterday?&#8217;
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This is a great answer from <a href="https://x.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AOC</a>. I’ve heard a lot of people duck the are you gonna run for president question, and rarely is the answer actually inspiring. <a href="https://t.co/bZbS1jgDew">pic.twitter.com/bZbS1jgDew</a>
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) <a href="https://x.com/TVietor08/status/2052897174657311088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2026</a></blockquote>
While it is still very early in the 2028 presidential cycle, politicians including former Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro are among the Democrats widely expected to run for or explore bids for the White House.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/aoc-mocked-for-global-stage-disaster-then-phones-a-friend?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=AOC+Mocked+For+Global+Stage+Disaster+—+Then+Phones+A+Friend">AOC Mocked For Global Stage Disaster — Then Phones A Friend</a>

119th Congress Begins Its Term On Capitol Hill

WATCH: AOC’S Giddy Response When Asked About Running For President

WATCH: AOC’s Giddy Response When Asked About Running For President 

2028 presidential election

Vice President JD Vance laid out his vision for the future of the Republican Party during a wide-ranging <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQTeDhe63xI">interview</a> with Daily Wire host Michael Knowles released Tuesday, touching on everything from his conversion to Catholicism to artificial intelligence, Iran, and the direction of the conservative movement after President Donald Trump&#8217;s second term.
While much of the conversation focused on Vance&#8217;s new book, Communion, and his journey back to Christianity, it also explored the political philosophy guiding one of the GOP&#8217;s leading figures.
One of the interview&#8217;s biggest takeaways came when Vance declared that today&#8217;s Republican Party has fundamentally moved beyond the economic consensus that defined conservatism for decades.
&#8220;American economic policy on the right is now much more Alexander Hamilton than it is Milton Friedman,&#8221; Vance said, arguing that President Trump&#8217;s political movement has already transformed the GOP&#8217;s approach to trade, tariffs, manufacturing, and industrial policy.
Rather than viewing economic growth as an end in itself, Vance argued that government should prioritize policies that strengthen families, communities, and workers.
&#8220;The economy is a tool to service the dignity of the human person,&#8221; he told Knowles.
Vance also took aim at modern meritocracy, arguing that elite institutions have encouraged Americans to pursue achievement for its own sake instead of focusing on what gives life meaning. He contrasted elite careerism with the importance of family, faith, and community, telling Knowles that &#8220;nobody is on their deathbed&#8221; wishing they had spent less time with their children in exchange for greater wealth.
Knowles also asked Vance about the intellectual influences behind his worldview, prompting discussions of St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, René Girard, Pope Leo XIII, and Catholic social teaching. Vance credited those thinkers with helping shape both his religious conversion and his political outlook.
The vice president also reflected on his own conversion to Catholicism, describing his journey from an unchurched evangelical upbringing through atheism before ultimately finding stability in what he called the Catholic Church&#8217;s continuity across generations and its unchanging doctrine.
Beyond philosophy, Knowles pressed Vance on several major policy issues. Discussing the administration&#8217;s handling of Iran, Vance defended President Trump&#8217;s willingness to use military force while rejecting what he characterized as intervention for its own sake.
&#8220;The president is willing to drop bombs,&#8221; Vance said, &#8220;but only if it serves an objective.&#8221;
On artificial intelligence, Vance argued that America must remain competitive with China while also preventing AI from becoming a tool for social harm. He distinguished between AI used for breakthroughs like curing disease and applications that promote pornography, exploit children, or concentrate power among large technology companies.
Looking ahead to the 2028 election, Vance predicted Democrats would likely nominate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), arguing that universities, rather than labor unions, have become the Democratic Party&#8217;s true center of power.
Vance laid out the broader ideas informing his vision for the Republican Party: one centered on national development, family, faith, and what he repeatedly described as the dignity of the human person, arguing those principles should guide the GOP beyond Trump&#8217;s second term.
Watch the full interview:
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Knowles/Vance

JD Vance Lays Out Post-Trump Conservative Vision In Interview With Michael Knowles

Michael Knowles

The Daily Wire

The Michael Knowles Show

Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher admitted on Friday that his vote would be &#8220;in play&#8221; in coming elections if the Democratic Party continued its headlong gallop toward socialism.
Maher spoke with Vice President JD Vance on Friday&#8217;s broadcast of &#8220;Real Time,&#8221; and the discussion turned to the recent wins — particularly in places like New York City — racked up by fringe Left candidates endorsed by Democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
&#8220;Like, if this is where the Democratic Party is going, where this Democratic socialist — this obsession with Israel, with the Jew hating, they don’t believe in capitalism, no prisons&#8230;” “If this is where they’re going, my vote is in play,&#8221; Maher declared.
&#8220;Okay, I like to hear that,&#8221; Vance replied.
&#8220;It actually always has been,&#8221; Maher continued. &#8220;I just, every year, I don’t make my decision by who has an R or a D, I actually always came to the conclusion that the Democrat was probably better and voted for them. And Trump can’t run again and he’d be a little too exciting for me anyway. So it’s either going to be you or Rubio.&#8221;
Maher underscored his point by jabbing at one of the Mamdani-backed Democratic socialist candidates who recently won her primary in New York — Darializa Avila Chevalier.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
TRUTH NUKE: Bill Maher on Democratic Socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier: “There’s one candidate she will be a congresswoman from New York’s 13th District, who the New York Times asked her if someone mu*ders someone randomly should they go to jail? Couldn’t get her to say yes to… <a href="https://t.co/6zlnqGZKTz">pic.twitter.com/6zlnqGZKTz</a>
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) <a href="https://x.com/RedWavePress/status/2070833694856589377?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 27, 2026</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;There’s one candidate, she will be a congressperson from New York’s 13th District, who the New York Times asked her if someone murders someone randomly should they go to jail? Couldn’t get her to say yes to that,&#8221; Maher said. &#8220;She says, no more police ever at all. Ever. She says our veterans are war criminals. She said f*ck Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s a rapist.&#8221;
&#8220;So there is a woke mind virus, and I think we found patient zero,&#8221; Maher concluded.
And Maher is far from the only Democrat in the public eye raising concerns about the rapid influx from the party&#8217;s fringes: &#8220;The View&#8221; host Sara Haines raised the same issue during a recent &#8220;Behind the Table&#8221; podcast with executive producer Brian Teta and cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
💥NEW: &#8216;The View&#8217; Co-Host Sara Haines on Dem Socialist wins: &#8220;For the Republicans, this is a GIFT! &#8230; We&#8217;re writing the commercials pretty much for the GOP. The Democrats are literally just teeing up exactly how EVERY Democrat is gonna be framed!&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/lnBEE5Xbe0">pic.twitter.com/lnBEE5Xbe0</a>
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) <a href="https://x.com/JasonJournoDC/status/2070839692598063432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 27, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;For the Republicans, this is a gift,&#8221; she said, arguing that Republicans would use the most radical positions taken by the Democratic socialists and paint all Democrats with the same broad brush.
&#8220;We&#8217;re writing the commercials pretty much for the GOP. The Democrats are literally just teeing up exactly how every Democrat is gonna be framed!&#8221; she said.

Bill Maher

Bill Maher Is Not Down With The ‘Jew Hating’ Socialists: ‘My Vote Is In Play’

Bill Maher Is Not Down With The 'Jew Hating' Socialists: 'My Vote Is In Play'

antisemitism

Democratic Socialism

Media

Tucker Carlson says he no longer supports the Republican Party.
That’s the same as Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
For a long time, I&#8217;ve been talking about ideological borders for conservatives, because words have meanings and political movements must have borders. It turns out these “Republicans” are self-deporting, which is a good thing, because what we don&#8217;t need in the party are people who won&#8217;t assimilate to our culture or our values and who would like our enemies to win.
Good riddance.
Vice President JD Vance was recently on Megyn Kelly&#8217;s show in order to trot out his defense of the Iran deal, and he said something interesting: that even if you disagree with the administration, you should vote Republican, because the alternative is to put Democrats in power. That makes sense.
Let’s put aside all of the nonsense that the vice president was peddling about how we really need a bunch of people who love the Iran deal to stay in, because otherwise the neocons are going to win, etc., etc.
The whole point of what people on the horseshoe Right, or the woke Right, are doing is to destroy the Republican Party from within, to throw their support to someone else in order to get the Republican Party to run after them.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/the-ben-shapiro-show-episode-2451?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
I&#8217;m okay with people who are rabidly anti-American leaving the party. I don&#8217;t think we need them here. I think that if you came into the Republican Party because you were a refugee from your home party or from your home ideology, and we brought you in here as a kindness, and then you proceeded to take advantage of our system and proceeded to believe that we were going to change all of our principles for you, it&#8217;s time for you to self-deport.
Now, Tucker Carlson is self-deporting from the Republican Party. He&#8217;s very upset with the administration because the administration is not pro-Russia or pro-Iran enough for him.
Yesterday, he announced on the “Can&#8217;t Be Censored” podcast — I have to admit, I find it somewhat hilarious that there are podcasts with sizable audiences that claim that they&#8217;re being “censored” — that he no longer supports the Republican Party; he can&#8217;t because it&#8217;s just too immoral. A moral Republican Party would have sided with Hezbollah, Iran, and the Russians.
Don&#8217;t let the door hit you on the way out.
He said:
<blockquote>How could I or any American voters support a political party that&#8217;s not loyal to the United States, that puts the interests of a foreign country above those of its own citizens &#8230; 
I voted Republican my entire life. &#8230; I&#8217;ve been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican Party. &#8230; But there&#8217;s no defending this because it&#8217;s immoral. And it&#8217;s exactly the opposite of what a political party in a democracy is charged with doing, which is representing its own voters, its own citizens, its own nation. And they&#8217;re not doing that. So no, I&#8217;m out.</blockquote>
Tucker acts like he&#8217;s been a Republican for 35 years. That&#8217;s weird, because he was a registered Democrat from 2006 to 2020. He said he did that so he could vote for the Democrats in primaries and manipulate the system — except that Washington, D.C., where he was living, has a closed primary system.
I have some questions.
If the Republican Party will not support Vladimir Putin&#8217;s aspirations in Ukraine, if the Republican Party will not sing the glories of Russian bread and Russian subways and Russian hamburgers, if the Republican Party will not bend over for Qatar completely, if the Republican Party refuses to just cheer on the Iranians as they foster terrorism throughout the region, my goodness, what are we even doing here?
Marjorie Taylor Greene echoed, “There is [sic] a lot of us that are absolutely fed up and will not support a party that betrays its voters and country. That does not mean we are turning into Democrats either. But we are done with the America Last Republican Party.”
Megyn Kelly told JD Vance that she never believed she should simply leave because she&#8217;s upset over what the Republicans are doing. But two weeks ago, she was with Sean Ryan talking about forming a horseshoe coalition with Ana Kasparian, who has tweeted support for terrorism.
The important point is that the Republican Party has certain principles. If you do not accord with those centralizing principles, e.g., peace through strength, then probably you shouldn&#8217;t be here. That&#8217;s okay. You can leave.
But you should not be the lodestar of a new Republican Party.
Self-deportation is a good policy for people who joined up for the wrong reasons in the first place.

tucker_divorce_padded_left (1)

The Political Divorce Everyone Saw Coming

Ben Shapiro

Candace Owens

Conservatism

Marjorie Taylor Greene

Megyn Kelly

Nick Fuentes

Opinion

Republicans

Tucker Carlson

Woke Right

In a <a href="https://x.com/DrSamirGeagea/status/2069000722847338782">letter</a> addressed to Vice President JD Vance on Monday, the leader of the Lebanese Forces — the largest Christian party in Lebanon — asked that the United States support the Lebanese state in extending full authority over all of its territory, restrict weapons to legitimate institutions, and end Hezbollah’s military and security presence.
Samir Geagea’s letter came after <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/report-new-us-iran-lebanon-mechanism-to-include-iran-qatar-pakistan-exclude-israel-and-limit-israeli-response-to-threats-pm-idf-faces-no-restrictions/">reports</a> that a new Lebanon mechanism emerging from U.S.-Iran talks would include Iran, Qatar, and Pakistan, while excluding Israel and limiting Israeli responses to threats from Lebanon. The reported framework would allow Israel to respond only to “imminent threats,” rather than the broader “emerging threats” standard included in the 2024 mechanism, according to The Times of Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back on the report, saying the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) faced “no restrictions” in Lebanon.
Geagea said the greatest contribution the United States could make at this stage would be to support the Lebanese state as the sole national authority and not as a matter to be negotiated with Iran. Geagea also asked for assurances that any negotiations over Lebanon go through the Lebanese state alone. That, Geagea argued, would be the most meaningful step for Lebanon’s Christians and all Lebanese citizens because it would open the door to a sovereign state capable of providing security, stability, and prosperity.
The Lebanese Christian leader said he reviewed Vance&#8217;s statement on Iran with “interest and appreciation.” He said the vice president&#8217;s remarks reflected “genuine friendship and profound concern” not only for Lebanese Christians, but for Lebanon as a whole.
Geagea framed Lebanon’s Christians as a stabilizing force in the country’s modern history, describing them as committed to openness, moderation, freedom, and cultural life in a region marked by instability. He argued that Lebanon’s pluralism, public freedoms, and open system have long made the country distinct in the Middle East.
But Geagea said the last four decades have been especially difficult for Lebanese Christians and other Lebanese citizens because of Hezbollah’s rise as a military and security organization. He accused Hezbollah of usurping national decision-making, weakening legitimate institutions, blocking the formation of an effective state, and dragging Lebanon into conflicts tied to Iranian agendas rather than Lebanese interests.
The impact, he wrote, has been economic decline, fewer job opportunities, and the emigration of many Lebanese, including a significant number of Christians seeking safety, stability, and a dignified life.
Geagea’s warning comes as the IDF has accused Hezbollah operatives of using Christian areas as cover. Earlier this month, the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-dozens-of-hezbollah-members-hiding-in-christian-neighborhood-in-tyre-warns-they-arent-safe-there/">IDF said</a> dozens of Hezbollah members were hiding inside a Christian neighborhood in the coastal city of Tyre, an area that had not been included in a previous evacuation warning.
Lt. Col. Ella Waweya, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokeswoman, said the military had issued an evacuation warning for parts of Tyre because of Hezbollah activity and alleged violations of the ceasefire agreement, but said that warning did not include the city’s Christian neighborhood.
According to Waweya, the IDF later identified activity by dozens of Hezbollah operatives inside that Christian neighborhood.
“This is not the first time we have exposed Hezbollah activity from within Christian areas, based on its belief that these areas provide it with a safer refuge,” Waweya said.
She called on residents to “demand the removal of the terror organization’s operatives from your areas,” and warned Hezbollah members that they were “not safe there.” If they continued operating from inside the area, she said, the IDF would issue evacuation instructions for the Christian neighborhood and take action against them.
The IDF’s allegation adds weight to the concern Geagea raised in his letter: that Hezbollah’s military presence has weakened the Lebanese state and exposed Lebanese civilians, including Christians, to instability and danger.
Geagea closed by thanking Vance again for his concern and said he hoped the United States would remain a key partner in helping Lebanon reclaim its role as a model of freedom, pluralism, and peace in the Middle East.

Road To Damascus Littered With War Wreckage Following Fall Of Assad Regime

Leader Of Lebanon’s Largest Christian Party Begs Trump/Vance To Change Terms Of Iran Deal

Israel

Lebanon

President Trump&#8217;s America First is about America being strong at home and abroad.
President Trump remains America First. He spent his weekend warning Iran not to screw with the United States or our allies, or there would be consequences. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spent his weekend working the phones to help destroy the Iranian proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance spent the weekend looking weak in front of the Qataris, the Pakistanis, and most of all, the Iranians. I&#8217;ve never seen a weaker look from a Republican politician. It is not peace through strength. It is war through weakness.
Get the amateurs back on the bench and the professionals back in the game.
President Trump spent the weekend trying to reestablish U.S. deterrence: &#8220;Peace through strength,&#8221; which he&#8217;s been pushing for literally decades. Rubio spent the weekend trying to end the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah over in Lebanon, because that&#8217;s part of peace through strength. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/the-ben-shapiro-show-episode-2450?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
I want the war in Iran to end. I&#8217;ve said for months that it is not worth waging war if you don&#8217;t win it. The ends were spelled out by the administration from the outset: No nuclear enrichment, no ballistic missiles, no support of terrorism, and the Strait of Hormuz open.
Those were the goals. Those are still the goals. Even if we pretend those are not the goals, those are still the goals.
The administration wants oil prices to go down because of the economic impact of high prices heading into the midterms. The only way to keep the Strait of Hormuz durably open is through strength, because otherwise the Iranians will jerk us around, as they have been doing for 50 years.
Over the weekend, President Trump appeared to know that.
Vance, not so much.
For America’s sake, I would love for the vice president to do well abroad. I would love the whole administration to do well. I would love every administration and every politician in every administration to do well by representing American power with peace through strength.
But the lack of American strength in the room in Switzerland over the weekend was devastating. When America has the most dominant military on the entire globe, there is simply no excuse for American weakness.
Over the weekend, the president became highly annoyed with the Iranians. Why? Because they keep threatening to shut the Strait of Hormuz, and because they keep activating their friends in the terrorist group Hezbollah to attack Israeli troops.
As I have said, the goal for Iran — sensing weakness in the United States — is to ratchet up conflict in Lebanon by activating its terror group, Hezbollah, to attack the Israelis in the hope that the Israelis would then retaliate. And then Iran would say they&#8217;re shutting the Strait of Hormuz, and it&#8217;s all the Israelis&#8217; fault. They would hope that President Trump would then yell at the Israelis.
That&#8217;s a win-win for the Iranians, because either they end up with Israel taking casualties in Lebanon and in Israel, or they end up with the administration pressuring the Israelis, the Israelis refusing, and then alienation between the United States and Israel, which is what Iran wants. That is the entire game for them.
It&#8217;s not a complex game. It&#8217;s a very simple game. But the president had had enough of it over the weekend. On Sunday, according to Fox News, President Trump said in an interview that he had spoken with Iranian officials on Saturday night and warned them not to close the strait. “You close it and you won&#8217;t have a country,” he warned. “You won&#8217;t even make it back to your f*cking country if you close the Strait.”
The president wrote on Truth Social, “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid proxies in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don&#8217;t, we&#8217;ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder.”
This is a Trumpian foreign policy. If you screw with us, if you screw with our allies, you get hit. If you interfere with American interests in the Strait of Hormuz, you get hit. We&#8217;re not going to just hand you things.
Marco Rubio has been very quiet. I think he&#8217;s been quiet about the memorandum of understanding because it is poorly written and because the vice president did a bad job of negotiating it. Rubio is actively managing the situation in Lebanon, attempting to put together a coalition against Hezbollah between Israel and the Lebanese, while not including Syria. Rubio is a pro.
But there is one member of the administration who did something that was pretty humiliating for the United States over the weekend. And that was the vice president.
Quick hypothetical coming up in a moment.
Let me be clear: I don&#8217;t care about the names in these situations. I just care about the policy. I want America to be strong. I want America to show greater interest in the Middle East. I want an open Strait of Hormuz. I want Iran defenestrated as an actual military threat to the United States.
So I don&#8217;t care who the person is who&#8217;s doing the dumb thing. If they&#8217;re doing a dumb thing, they should be called out for doing a dumb and weak thing.
Here&#8217;s the hypothetical: I&#8217;m just going to switch the names. Vice President Kamala Harris heads over to Switzerland for negotiations with Iran. There, she says that she loves Pakistan.
She then takes a picture, being given orders by an Iranian cutout. Then she emerges from negotiations with a deconfliction agreement that actually doesn&#8217;t de-escalate anything and doesn&#8217;t include any of the parties to the actual conflict.
But hey, at least she also got stiffed on camera by a bunch of foreign politicians.
Okay, so that didn&#8217;t happen to Kamala Harris. (Although it wouldn&#8217;t be surprising if it did.)
It did happen, but to Vice President JD Vance, which makes it like a thousand times worse. Why? Because it would not be surprising if Kamala Harris were weak. It would not be surprising if Kamala Harris looked as though she were being given the runaround by America&#8217;s enemies.
But I would not expect this from Donald Trump&#8217;s vice president.
You would also expect this kind of weakness from Democrats desperate to avoid any sort of conflict with the Iranians. But we just spent months destroying Iran&#8217;s air force, navy, ballistic missile facilities, nuclear facilities, and army.
This is like going to a meeting with the Japanese and bowing before them between Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We already clocked the hell out of them. What are we doing here?
Vance spent the weekend getting dunked on.
First of all, the Iranian delegation refused a joint photo with the United States team. We should have refused a joint photo with them. They are murderers. But it was the United States that apparently wanted a joint photo.
Normally, when it comes to protocol, the people who want it more show up early. The people who are the big dogs show up late. The United States was there waiting around. The vice president was waiting around for the Iranians to show up, and they stiffed him on a photo op.
And then they showed up late.
The negotiators from Qatar walked right by Vance, but they greeted their Pakistani friends.
It got worse. Qatar is a cutout for Iran and works hand-in-glove with it; they share oil fields with Iran. Thus, they feel indebted to the Iranians and are constantly doing their work. That is the reason why Hamas was stationed in Qatar for literally a decade.
Qatar is one party. Pakistan is another party, an Islamist state with nuclear weapons, allied with the Chinese government. You had a Chinese cutout, an Iranian cutout, and the Iranians there, and the vice president holding a press conference in which he bragged about how Pakistan was awesome.
If the Democrats had done this, there would be screaming. Not a single word Vance said for the entire weekend would have been foreign coming out of the mouth of Barack Obama.
Peace through strength is what President Trump stands for.
And he didn’t get it.

The Inauguration Of Donald J. Trump As The 47th President

Replace Vance With Kamala And Read It Again

China

Iran

Iran Nuclear Deal

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

Pakistan

Peace negotiations

Qatar

Trump Administration

Vice President JD Vance indicated that the United States was prepared to build a whole new relationship with Iran — if the nation&#8217;s new leadership was truly ready to give up its nuclear dream.
Vance made the <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/06/21/us-news/vance-says-us-willing-to-fundamentally-transform-iran-relationship/">remarks in Switzerland, where the first round of talks with Iran began under a 60-day memorandum</a> of understanding meant to lay the groundwork for a broader peace deal.
“What the president has asked us to do is turn over a new leaf to transform our relationship with the people of Iran, and to extend an outstretched hand that says to the people of Iran that if your leadership is willing to give up being a driver of regional instability,” Vance said, according to the New York Post.
“If they are willing to give up nuclear weapons ambitions for the long term, then the United States is willing to fundamentally transform our relationship with that country,” he added. “That is certainly our goal.”
The vice president’s remarks framed the talks as a possible turning point in U.S.-Iran relations, but also made clear that any improvement would depend on Iran’s willingness to change course.
“The opening of the Strait of Hormuz, the ending of the Iranian nuclear program, all of these things have already been accomplished,” Vance said. “The question before us now is, how much more can we accomplish together?”
“Can we turn over a new leaf? Can we change relations in the Middle East permanently? Or do we go back to doing things the old way, which is not our preference,” he added.
Vance’s public offer came as President Donald Trump struck a much harder tone toward Tehran, warning Iran to stop its proxies in Lebanon from escalating the conflict.
“Iran must <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116788337995785578">immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES</a> in Lebanon from causing trouble,” Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social.
 “If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”
Vance’s remarks came as Trump separately warned Iran over Hezbollah, placing the diplomatic talks alongside the administration’s public threats of further action if Tehran’s proxies continue causing trouble in Lebanon.
The Switzerland talks had been delayed because of clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, according to the New York Post. The MOU laid out a template for peace between the United States and Iran while giving both sides 60 days to work toward a more detailed agreement.
Trump has also warned Iran against closing the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that remains central to the talks and to global energy security.
“<a href="https://x.com/FoxNews/status/2068720063419445738">You close it, and you won’t have a country</a>,” Trump said, according to Fox. “You won’t even make it back to your f*cing country.”
The president also criticized Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian after he said Iran would not give up its right to enrichment and that the United States would be “forced to accept it.”
“He better watch his mouth. He better shape up, or we’ll take over the rest of the country,” Trump said, according to the Post.
The talks are moving forward as Vance conveys a possible shift in U.S.-Iran relations, while Trump continues to warn Tehran over Hezbollah and the Strait of Hormuz.

Vice President JD Vance Speaks In North Carolina

Vance Hints At New Start For Iran As Trump Warns Tehran Over Hezbollah

Global Politics

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ended a tumultuous week dealing with the war in Iran and negotiations with Middle Eastern countries by describing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a &#8220;warrior.&#8221;
Flanked by his brand new Qatari-gifted Air Force One, the president spoke from Joint Base Andrews where he emphasized the U.S. relationship with Israel and praised Netanyahu.
&#8220;Bibi Netanyahu is a warrior, prime minister, and he should be acknowledged as that,&#8221; Trump said on Friday. &#8220;They should give him credit.&#8221;
The president&#8217;s comments come after a long week of disputes over the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States — a memorandum that caught Netanyahu by surprise.
WATCH:  <iframe style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; max-width: 100%; width: 100%; margin: 20px auto 5px; border: 0;" src="https://player.mux.com/grMhefDLbLNvZf0101Qcpm9MC100mkvlIId?metadata-video-content-type=embed_video&amp;metadata-video-id=3e6c32c7-8dad-4e04-b157-2985497969fe&amp;metadata-video-stream-type=on-demand&amp;metadata-video-title=2026-06-19%20Trump%20Offers%20Netanyahu%20A%20Public%20Boost&amp;poster=https%3A%2F%2Fdailywireplus-v2.imgix.net%2Fimages%2Fembedded-videos%2Fff031128-56c9-4bff-8af1-551fcb0890a1.png&amp;autoplay=false&amp;accent-color=%23DB3D3B&amp;primary-color=%23ffffff&amp;secondary-color=%23000000" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
A U.S. official shared with reporters earlier this week that Israel had not asked for the final text of the memorandum before Trump announced it, but said that the White House had kept Netanyahu updated throughout the negotiations.
Just five days ago, Trump told Axios that Netanyahu had &#8220;no f*cking judgement&#8221; after Netanyahu ordered a strike in Beirut that could have negatively impacted the United States&#8217; deal with Iran.
On Wednesday, during the G7 summit, the president told world leaders: &#8220;Bibi is a good man. He gets a little excited sometimes. But we have an amazing partnership. We are the big partner and he is the very small partner.&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s remarks come one day after Vice President JD Vance addressed those within Netanyahu&#8217;s circles who have recently expressed concern about the deal.
“You have seen people within Bibi&#8217;s cabinet have attacked the deal and personally attacked the President of the United States,&#8221; Vance told reporters in the White House briefing room on Thursday afternoon.
&#8220;My message to them would be twofold,&#8221; the vice president said. &#8220;Number one: Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time. And he happens to be the head of state of the world superpower.&#8221;
&#8220;If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,&#8221; he noted. &#8220;And to some of these cabinet members in Israel who are attacking the president of the United States, the other thing I would say is that over the last three months, 2/3 of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars.&#8221;
&#8220;The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump,&#8221; Vance added. &#8220;And anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the President of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in.&#8221;

US-ISRAEL-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY-TRUMP-NETANYAHU

Trump Offers Israel’s Netanyahu A Public Boost After Rocky Week

Benjamin Netanyahu

Donald Trump

Vice President J.D. Vance waded into the pit of vipers that is ABC’s &#8220;The View&#8221; on Tuesday. Armed with his wit and the facts, Vance was assailed on all sides by the panel of liberal ladies who slung lies and conspiracy theories at him, and he defused all of it — many times by just asking for evidence or questioning where it came from, and often triggering them.
Almost out of the gate, Vance had to defuse mischaracterizations of President Donald Trump’s comments about the economy and affordability. “President Trump has called affordability a hoax. He said that, not me,” claimed Joy Behar. In one of her many out-of-turn questions, Ana Navarro chided, “He [Trump] just said he loved the inflation.”
“Well, I got to defend the president on the hoax point. What the president said is the idea that Republicans caused the affordability problem is a hoax,” Vance told Behar. To Navarro, he noted: “What he said is that he loves the fact the inflation is going to come down when this war is over. That&#8217;s what he said.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
And we get the first clash. 
Vance FACT-CHECKS The View for spewing misinformation about what Trump has said about inflation. <a href="https://t.co/1DLYMZzcz1">pic.twitter.com/1DLYMZzcz1</a>
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://x.com/NickFondacaro/status/2066908417088774509?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 16, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Interrupting Vance’s answer to a question about the Epstein files, Navarro tried to implicate Trump in the billionaire’s crimes by noting, “They were best friends for a decade.” Vance was still able to get in his fact-check:
<blockquote>
So, number one is, yes, Donald Trump said this. He knew Epstein back in the 1980s. He also threw Epstein out of his club when he found out he was a creep and reported him to the police. That&#8217;s something the media often misses when it reports the story. They tell the fact they knew each other in the ’80s, which the president himself admits. They ignore the fact that he narced on him to the police and ultimately led to Jeffrey Epstein&#8217;s downfall.
</blockquote>
It’s worth noting that moderator Whoopi Goldberg had <a href="https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2026/02/19/view-has-new-excuses-their-names-epstein-files-whoopis-jet">shifting explanations</a> after a <a href="https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2026/02/04/whoopi-goldberg-requested-epstein-jet-fly-her-monaco-charity">NewsBusters investigation </a>of the Epstein files found an email from someone associated with her requesting to borrow his infamous jet.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Sunny Hostin asks Vance about releasing the Epstein files but gets angry when he says he believes the conspiracies about Epstein and powerful people. 
He point out that Epstein hates Trump and it&#8217;s evident in the emails, he calls out the media for hiding the fact Trump called the… <a href="https://t.co/SVxAWsHI5v">pic.twitter.com/SVxAWsHI5v</a>
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://x.com/NickFondacaro/status/2066909968142361045?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 16, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Continuing to be a spigot of misinformation, Navarro repeatedly clashed with Vance on the issue of illegal immigration.
At one point, when Vance was setting the record straight on the lie that Trump called all Mexicans rapists and noted he was talking about Central American countries releasing criminals to go north, Navarro interrupted to falsely claim “there’s no evidence” and “this was made up.”
“Ana, we know that there were people released from prisons who were encouraged to come to the United States,” Vance pushed back. Navarro actually gave a tacit admission that it was true when she argued, “It wasn&#8217;t like it was in the Mariel [Boatlift] … it wasn’t where it was like a purposeful open up the jails, open up the insane asylums and flood Florida.”
Navarro also threw out the massive whopper, suggesting that the Trump administration was essentially torturing thousands of children:
<blockquote>
There are thousands of children, 6,200, that are being held in places like Dilley Detention Center that people that have visited — I don&#8217;t know if you have — talk about the subhuman, infrahuman conditions, the lack of clean water, the lack of medical attention, lack of education.
</blockquote>
Of course, she provided no evidence for such a claim, and Vance called out the story as coming from “one person with a political bias.” But when Vance seemingly tried to bring up how the Joe Biden administration lost hundreds of thousands of migrant children, he got shut down by Sunny Hostin.
On Friday’s show, Navarro said that if Trump were on the show, she would treat him the same way and “push back on the lies.”
Arguably one of the most brazen lies came from Goldberg about something that came out of her mouth during the interview.
After insinuating that Vance and the administration were racist and othering minorities, she snapped at Vance and got aggressive for accurately describing what she said:
<blockquote>
GOLDBERG: What did black people do to this administration that has allowed it to really stigmatize folks of color?
(&#8230;)
VANCE: But let me just give you an example. Okay, so you say we’re anti-minority or anti-black —
GOLDBERG: No, I didn&#8217;t say that! I asked. See.
VANCE: Okay, fine. Fair. Fair.
GOLDBERG: Don&#8217;t start any stuff with me, man!
</blockquote>
Goldberg’s comment definitely sounded accusatory to an honest listener.
Amid that exchange, when Vance asked her for a specific example of her purported claim of the erasure of black history, all she could do was get flustered and assert, “there’s so many.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Sunny Hostin asks Vance about releasing the Epstein files but gets angry when he says he believes the conspiracies about Epstein and powerful people. 
He point out that Epstein hates Trump and it&#8217;s evident in the emails, he calls out the media for hiding the fact Trump called the… <a href="https://t.co/SVxAWsHI5v">pic.twitter.com/SVxAWsHI5v</a>
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://x.com/NickFondacaro/status/2066909968142361045?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 16, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
So many, just like the lies &#8220;The View&#8221; tells.
***
Nicholas C. Fondacaro is the associate editor for the Media Research Center and NewsBusters.

ABC’s “The View” – Season 25

Vice President Vance Assailed On All Sides By The View’s Lies

DW Opinion

Media Bias

The View

These are unprecedented times in politics, and they include unprecedented decisions on the part of political leaders – none more so than what J.D. Vance decided to do this week, in the midst of a book tour where no one talked about his book.
The vice president of the United States, the odds-on favorite to be the next presidential nominee of the Republican Party, decided to unequivocally bet his reputation and his future electoral prospects on an extremely vague and uncertain deal with Iran — one which if it comes to fruition (a doubtful matter itself) would result in tens and potentially hundreds of billions of dollars flowing to the regime of the new Ayatollah.
From the perspective of Washington Republicans, this is a move by a vice president who wants a political win. Having felt his skeptical views about the Iran conflict and other foreign policy actions largely ignored by President Trump, here was an opportunity for narrative success: a potential “forever war”, unpopular particularly with working-class Independent and younger Republican voters, brought to an end in a sweeping act of diplomatic acumen by the young veteran of past conflict.
The story is a compelling one. Instead of his potential presidential competitor, Marco Rubio, solving this problem, it would be Vance who stepped in to lower energy prices, relieve the pain on American working families, and also bail out nervous Republicans on Capitol Hill fighting to keep their jobs and their majority. And if you disagree, you favor — as he put it to Megyn Kelly — &#8220;[E]ndless conflict. They want this to go on until every bomb has been dropped or until every Iranian is dead.&#8221;
There is not enough straw in the world to build a man this size. But as for the deal, the devil is in the details, and they are not minor details: Immediate ability for the Iranians to move oil and profit from it; a vaporware rebuilding fund, sure to be filled with corrupt interests and repurposed for the usual items on the Ayatollah’s grocery list; unenforceable demands that rely on a pinkie swear — sorry, “gentleman’s agreement” — from the religious zealots who rule the country.
On Thursday, the vice president answered a question from The Daily Wire in the White House briefing room with a casual list of things that could bring resumed military action against Iran for violations of the memorandum of understanding:
<blockquote>
It&#8217;s just going to be a holistic approach where we look at their behavior. Are they funding terrorism? Are they leading attacks on other people? Are they trying to get centrifuges to redevelop their nuclear weapons program? There are all these questions that we&#8217;re going to ask about whether they&#8217;ve actually changed their behavior. Do they allow the inspectors in, as they have said they would do, or do they refuse to allow those inspectors in? A whole host of things we&#8217;re going to see, working towards a very successful resolution of this process. But again, it takes two to tango. And what the President is just saying is that we maintain economic, diplomatic, and military leverage that nobody else in the world has. So if the Iranians want to change, great — we&#8217;re going to help them. If they don&#8217;t change, we still got all the cards.
</blockquote>
The problems with this answer are obvious and numerous. If you have all the cards, why the capitulation? The Iranian regime has never, including during the latest operations, stopped funding terrorism through its proxies. Leading attacks on other people is part of their daily routine. The situation in Lebanon is impossible to guarantee. And as for future commitments to inspectors and changed behavior, the Ayatollah has no term limit — he can just wait a year or two and return to the regime’s behavior — and what then? Would a future President Gavin Newsom resume military action? Would a President J.D. Vance?
As an advocate for this new Iran deal, the vice president deployed his usual Yale Law skill: turn the situation into a false choice between boots on the ground, American casualties, and forever war, or this deal. What is the alternative? You may recognize the same rhetorical tics from an equally eloquent and unlikely Oval Office decisionmaker. At least this one has the virtue of coming after a near-decimation of the Iranian ballistic missile arsenal — but if that’s all this was about, why do they stand to reap all the financial benefits?
Vance clearly believes in this deal. His former Senate colleagues who supported Operation Epic Fury don’t understand the nature of it and resent the lack of any read-in on the details. Behind the scenes, several admit they view the deal and the follow-on negotiation as laughable, a punt that is unlikely to actually come to fruition, scoffing at the idea of a $300 billion fund and assuming that bombs will be falling again in months.
One Senator confided that they believed Vance was nuking his future political prospects by tying himself so closely to a major foreign policy endeavor that looks, for all appearances, like a doomed effort at “trust, but only verify if we have to.” It is a perspective echoed by others — but of course, they are making assumptions based on facts not yet in evidence, and for some, it’s a silver lining to a bad resolution.
Most vice presidents don’t have to stake their future political prospects on a major decision. But Vance’s political career was so brief prior to joining the 2024 ticket that this essentially amounts to the biggest thing he’s ever owned. How this deal turns out could end up being one of the biggest questions for him on the debate stage in two years’ time. That places an enormous amount of faith in the Iranians.
The vice president is clear about where he’s placed his trust. We’ll see how much that’s worth.

Vice President  Vance Holds News Conference At White House

JD Vance’s Big Iran Gamble

2026 midterm

Foreign Policy

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