Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of Washington Secrets. Today, we look at White House messaging on Iran, and we tuck into slices of wagyu at the Japanese ambassador’s residence.
An Iranian official briefs Reuters that a 10-point peace plan includes allowing Tehran to hold on to highly enriched uranium, along with sanctions relief, in return for promising not to pursue nuclear weapons.
The claims and subsequent U.S. denials framed the lead-up to the weekend’s peace talks in Islamabad.
Then, after Vice President JD Vance flies home, Pakistani officials brief reporters that indirect talks continue and that face-to-face meetings will resume in their capital as soon as Thursday.
In the meantime, President Donald Trump triggers global outrage by posting an AI image of himself in a Christ-like pose, healing the sick, and then gives an impromptu news conference while taking delivery of a bag of McDonald’s burgers at the door of the Oval Office.
Standing beside a slightly bewildered DoorDash delivery driver, he said “the right people” had been in touch to say that they wanted a deal.
Trump has been roundly criticized for failing to make the case for war to the American people and for shifting its objectives. Now, his team is under pressure in the messaging war around the talks and conceding too much ground in the battle for the narrative.
Sean Savett, spokesman for the National Security Council under former President Joe Biden, said Trump had undermined his operation by slimming down the NSC and getting rid of its communications shop.
“I think that’s really borne out throughout the course of the war,” Savett said. “Now you have the president of the United States sending all sorts of mixed signals and constantly changing his message every couple of hours, saying different things to different reporters.”
Last year, the White House cut the size of the NSC in half. Savett’s post was eliminated and the top job of national security adviser was taken on by Marco Rubio, who was already secretary of state.
That has led to missteps in policy decisions, such as failing to predict that Iran would shut the Strait of Hormuz, but also affected the vital area of messaging, says Savett.
“One big part of it is the backgrounding: Explaining to reporters the contours of negotiations and what could be acceptable, what is not, and pushing back against misinformation,” he said.
That used to happen in the early days of the administration. NSC directors would hold briefing calls ahead of major events. Officials would also listen to the president’s phone calls in order to draft official readouts, but that stopped when Trump complained about conversations being leaked.
Vance flew in with his own team of officials to Islamabad and a small pool of reporters. They were present at his brief news conference before leaving on Sunday morning.
But the broader press corps, stationed at a convention center up the road, heard nothing from U.S. officials.
In the past, the national security adviser or their regional lieutenants would hold briefing calls. But this time around, Rubio was at a cage fight in Miami with the president.
A former Trump official said the White House decision making structure had changed.
“In like a Biden or an Obama administration, lower-level or mid-level officials were empowered to make decisions, whereas in this administration, decisions come from the top down, not the bottom up,” he said.
This system did not need more junior officials to brief journalists, the official argued, when all they had to do was keep an eye on the president’s Truth Social feed or, for that matter, his comments as he took delivery of a consignment of burgers.
Savett said one of the communications team’s jobs should be to create the right venues for the president to set out his strategy.
“When you work at the White House, you want to make sure the president always looks like he’s in command,” Savett said. “And when he’s answering questions while taking food delivery in the middle of a major crisis that he’s created, and it is contributing to a significant increase in the price of food … that does not look like he is in command.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Japanese evening was a cut above
Trade missions do not always make for the most fun receptions around town. Except when it is the governor of Kagoshima in Japan, and he is hawking his prefecture’s food.
And so it was that some of the region’s finest chefs — Ryan Moore from Little Blackbird, John White of Jaelo, and Adrian Davila — were let loose on thin cuts of wagyu beef, yellowtail tuna, and other world-class ingredients. Think cocktails decorated with cherry blossom and small bowls of colorful bites.
Guests sampled wagyu carpaccio, topped with bonito foam and ramps, yellowtail crudo served with yuzu and caviar, and short rib tataki on crispy rice.
But Secrets rather felt for Gov. Koichi Shiota. He was constantly in demand for handshakes and selfies, and said he simply had not had time to try all the delicacies.
“But I hear the eel was very popular,” Shiota said, before expounding on the virtues of Kagoshima beef. “For example the wagyu, our producers have been working on the genetics for generations. Their passion shows through.”
Secrets fact check: True.
Quote of the day
Sharon Simmons was the DoorDash bearer of the burger referenced above. She thought she was there to talk about benefiting from Trump’s “no tax on tips” policy. But the president couldn’t resist shifting the focus, asking her whether she thought men should play in women’s sports.
“I really don’t have an opinion on that,” she said.
When Trump suggested she must have an opinion, Simmons stuck to her guns: “No. I’m here about no tax on tips,” Simmons said.
Lunchtime reading
They photographed an execution in Bosnia. Did they influence the killer? How did two Reuters photographers capture extraordinary images of an apparent murder during the collapse of Yugoslavia into civil war?
How much has the war in Iran depleted the U.S. missile supply? Maybe Elbridge Colby was right all along, and the U.S. should have been paying much more attention to China and not the Middle East.
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