Vice President JD Vance dressed down the media during an Oval Office event with President Donald Trump on Monday, accusing them of “trying to drive a wedge between members of the administration, between me and the president.”
Trump and Vance portrayed a unified front on the Iran war at the White House on Monday, after a report emerged that the vice president, well known for his noninterventionist views, was “skeptical” about the decision to strike Tehran.
“What the president said consistently, going back to 2015, and I agreed with him, is that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon,” Vance said during the Oval Office announcement, which had been designed to tout the formation of a new task force to root out fraud. “We have taken this military action under the president’s leadership. I think all of us, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, should pray for its success and pray for the safety of our troops. That’s the approach that I’ve taken. Make it as successful as possible.”
Seeking to put to bed any notion of disagreement between the pair, Vance said his past criticism of military interventionism, especially in the global war on terrorism, was driven by the leadership in the White House at the time.
“We have a smart president, whereas in the past we’ve had dumb presidents, and I trust President Trump to get the job done, to do a good job for the American people and to make sure that the mistakes of the past aren’t repeated, absolutely,” he answered.
After Vance spoke, Trump chimed in to show his support.
“JD has been great,” the president said. “But here’s the simple thing, I don’t want wars. I want wars less than almost anybody. Peace through strength.”
The Iran war, now more than two weeks old, has faced low polling support among the public and spiked gas prices as Iran has throttled the Strait of Hormuz.
VANCE ASKS NORTH CAROLINA TO PRAY FOR THE TROOPS, BUT DOESN’T DENY CAUTIONING TRUMP AGAINST IRAN WAR
The Trump administration has grown increasingly aggressive in its attacks against the media with both Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth repeatedly denigrating the press’s negative cover over the past two weeks. The Politico report, published last week, alleged the vice president had argued against launching the strikes against Iran in the lead-up to the war. Vance refused to explicitly deny the report during a swing through North Carolina on Friday.
“I hate to disappoint you, but I’m not going to show up here in front of God and everybody else, and tell you exactly what I said in that classified room,” he told reporters while stumping for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley in North Carolina.
“Partially because I don’t want to go to prison, and partially because I think it’s important for the president of the United States to be able to talk to his advisers without those advisers running their mouth to the American media,” he said.
The optics, though, may not help Vance if he decides to run for president in 2028 when Trump is term-limited.
As the undisputed head of MAGA, Trump is still the kingmaker in the GOP, and if Vance were to run, he needs Trump’s blessing.
So far, Vance and Trump are playing nicely for the media. Trump jokingly claimed Vance’s leadership of the fraud task force would be far more successful than former Vice President Kamala Harris’s role to tamp down illegal immigration at the southern border.
He also continued to sing Vance’s praise for the war.
“I’m very proud of what we did, and I think JD understands better than most,” Trump said. “If you give Iran a nuclear weapon, at least a very substantial part of the world would be blown up.”