President Donald Trump closed a press conference at the G7 summit on Wednesday joking that he liked the idea of Vice President JD Vance receiving the blame if a nuclear deal with Iran fails.
Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked Trump whether sending Vance to Geneva, Switzerland, to sign the memorandum of understanding on Friday gives him a scapegoat in case the negotiations fall apart. The president previously said it was unlikely that he would extend his European trip to attend the signing himself.
“Is there some element to this where you send the vice president?” Doocey asked. “If it works out, great, you look like a genius for sending him, and if it doesn’t work out, it’s the vice president.”
Trump responded: “I like that idea. Sure.”
“This way, if it works out, I’m going to take the credit,” Trump continued, prompting laughter from the crowd. “If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD. You better be careful, JD. He’s going to turn his plane around and get the hell out of here. Yeah, I like that idea. I think it’s a good idea.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump cast some doubt about whether the MOU, which gives the two sides 60 days to hammer out the technical details of a nuclear agreement, will be signed on Friday. But the White House is moving ahead with releasing details to the public, and on Wednesday, senior administration officials read out each line of the understanding to reporters.
Trump appeared comfortable owning the contents of that deal, which would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and promise sanctions relief in exchange for unspecified restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. At one point in the press conference, he called it the “Trump deal” and rejected criticism that it was no better than the one former President Barack Obama negotiated in 2015. But Trump has also endured criticism for keeping its contents shrouded in secrecy for days and front-loading concessions to Iran while the nuclear elements are worked out.
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At one point, Trump appeared open to letting Iran keep its ballistic missiles and downplayed the need to destroy or remove Iran’s enriched uranium quickly.
“Nobody can get it, so it’s not important that we do it quickly, but we could do it fairly quickly,” Trump said. “Nobody can do it. And if they do, we’ll hit them with [Patriot missiles], that’s all.”