Trump To Send JD Vance To Negotiate With Iran, After Shortest Ceasefire Ever Falls Apart
As the Trump administration continues to struggle to reach a lasting ceasefire in its war with Iran, President Donald Trump has reportedly decided to send in his No. 2, Vice President JD Vance, into the field to lead the U.S. delegation in its peace talks in the Middle East.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that this weekend, Vance will head the U.S. negotiating team for the peace talks with Iran, which Axios described as “the highest level meeting between the U.S. and Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.”
As we previously reported, senior Trump officials told reporters last month that Vance had opposed the war on Iran since early on. Of course, no one should be surprised that he hasn’t said a single negative word about the conflict publicly, because if Vance were a man of conviction, he might still be calling Trump an “idiot” and “reprehensible,” and compared him to Adolf Hitler like he was during the president’s first term. Hell, he might still be urging the Republican Party to abandon its racist and xenophobic ways like he did when he was in college, before he joined the party and became a racist and xenophobe himself.
Anyway, Vance said in Budapest on Wednesday that Trump is “impatient to make progress” with Iran and stressed that if Iranian officials don’t engage in good faith negotiations, “they’re going to find out that President Trump is not one to mess around with.”
Are they, then?
Look, the following is an abridged and largely paraphrased version of how Trump’s communications with Iranian leadership have played out in the media so far…
Trump (at the start of the war): “IRAN WILL BOW!”
Iran: “No we won’t.”
Trump (days later): “THE WAR IS WON!”
Iran: “No it’s not.”
Trump (weeks later): “We’re having very, very strong talks. The best talks. Talks like nobody has ever seen.”
Iran: “New phone; who dis?”
Trump: “Here’s my 15-point plan, Iran, and you better accept it, or else!”
Iran: “No.”
Trump: “Open the Strait of Hormuz, or say goodbye to those bridges and power plants!”
Iran: “Nope.”
Trump: “We don’t even need the strait.”
Iran: “…..”
Trump: “OPEN THE F**KING STRAIT!”
Iran: “No.”
Trump: “DO IT NOW, OR I’M BOMBING YOU AGAIN, uh, SOMETIME SOON!”
Iran: “Nein.”
Trump: “OPEN IT. BOMBS FOR REAL THIS TIME!”
Iran: “No, but in Spanish!“
Trump: ‘YOUR WHOLE CIVILIZATION WILL DIE TONIGHT!”
Iran: “Fine — here’s our 10-point proposal.”
Trump: “HEY EVERYBODY I’VE ACCEPTED IRAN’S VERY ONE-SIDED PROPOSAL THAT GIVES US NOTHING. THEY CAVED — PROBABLY! WE’LL SEE IN 2 WEEKS WHEN I TOTALLY START BOMBING THEIR WHOLE CIVILIZATION LIKE I SAID!”
Iran and Israel: *continue exchanging bombs*
Israel: “Wait, were you guys talking?”
From Axios:
Iranian state media reports Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is expected to lead Tehran’s delegation, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also joining the talks.
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon generated harsh condemnation from Tehran and claims that it was a breach of the ceasefire.
Araghchi hinted on X that Tehran could abandon the ceasefire if Israeli strikes continue.
The Iran–U.S. Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the U.S. must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,” he said. “The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”
A senior American official said the U.S. is not currently concerned that the strikes in Lebanon would jeopardize negotiations.
Leavitt told reporters that “it has been relayed to all parties” that Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire agreement.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would continue to discuss this, “but for now Lebanon is not included,” she added.
The third point in Iran’s 10-point proposal, which has been published in media outlets across the U.S. and worldwide, required an “end to Israeli strikes on Lebanon.”
Trump said when he announced the pending truce that he found the proposal to be “workable basis on which to negotiate,” but now that he’s desperate to control the narrative around which nation caved, he’s walking it all back.
More from Axios:
In a series of Truth Social posts on Wednesday, Trump wrote that the 10 points Iran published and claimed were the basis for negotiations were different than the 10 that were given to the U.S. and would be discussed “behind closed doors during these Negotiations.”
“These are the POINTS that are the basis on which we agreed to a CEASEFIRE. It is something that is reasonable, and can easily be dispensed with,” he said.
In a briefing with reporters, Leavitt confirmed Axios’ reporting that the 10-point counter-proposal that Iran sent to the White House on Monday was rejected and later amended and redrafted by the mediators in a way that was workable and in line with the White House’s 15-point proposal.
Leavitt claimed that what Tehran says publicly about the issues it has agreed to “is very different from what they say privately.” One example she gave is the highly enriched uranium stockpile. “We were given indications that they will turn over the enriched uranium,” she said.
Here’s what we know as U.S. civilians on the outside looking in: The U.S. government is consistently saying something completely different from what the Iranian government is saying, and the administration expects us to believe it at face value, because that’s what patriots do, but we know, based on common sense, that if two opposing sides are saying to different things in public, the negotiations we’re not privy to couldn’t possibly be going as well as we’re being led to believe.
Oh, and the fact that the bombing is still going on. That also doesn’t help.
And sorry, but I just don’t see Vance turning the tide here. Is he even good at literally anything?
SEE ALSO:
Strait Of Hormuz Still At Standstill Despite Ceasefire
Pentagon Official Threatens Vatican, Pope Leo XIV Over Iran War Criticism