Vance Defends Trump’s Iran Policy Amid MAGA Criticism of Foreign Entanglements

Vice President JD Vance defended the president amid criticism of his management on the current Iran-Israel conflict, hinting that the U.S. military might need to take “further action” against Iran.

Vance’s statement comes as some members of the Make America Great Again movement, among them commentator Tucker Carlson, are criticizing President Donald Trump’s Iran policy.

Carlson accused the administration of being “complicit” in Israel’s recent military actions against Iran, suggesting the situation could draw the U.S. into a broader war. The MAGA base’s fears of war in the Middle East were inflamed after Trump left the Group of Seven summit early to monitor the Middle East situation and urged residents of Tehran, the Iranian capital, to “immediately evacuate.”

Trump penned two more Truth Social posts, one saying he knows “exactly where” Iran’s “so-called Supreme Leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is “hiding” and another calling for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.” 

“We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers,” the president wrote. 

As a longtime critic of neoconservatism, Vance’s defense of Trump is likely to carry weight with those on the right critical of the American foreign policy establishment, which has been known to embroil the United States in what Vance has called “endless war.”

Vance reiterated that Trump has been “amazingly consistent, over 10 years, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

“Over the last few months, he encouraged his foreign policy team to reach a deal with the Iranians to accomplish this goal,” the vice president said. “The president has made clear that Iran cannot have uranium enrichment. And he said repeatedly that this would happen one of two ways—the easy way or the ‘other’ way.”

Iran had the option of maintaining civilian nuclear power without enrichment, but the country rejected that, erring in favor of enriching uranium far above the level necessary for any civilian purpose, Vance said. As a result, the International Atomic Energy Agency has found Iran in violation of its nonproliferation obligation.

“It’s one thing to want civilian nuclear energy. It’s another thing to demand sophisticated enrichment capacity,” Vance said. “And it’s still another to cling to enrichment while simultaneously violating basic nonproliferation obligations and enriching right to the point of weapons-grade uranium.”

The vice president said he has not seen good arguments for why Iran needed to enrich uranium at this level, or why Iran was justified in violating its nonproliferation obligations.

“Meanwhile, the president has shown remarkable restraint in keeping our military’s focus on protecting our troops and protecting our citizens,” Vance said on X. “He may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment.”

“That decision ultimately belongs to the president,” the vice president continued. “And of course, people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy. But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue.”

Vance assured Americans that Trump is only interested in “using the American military to accomplish the American people’s goals.”

Shortly after Vance’s statement, Trump said that “we”—likely meaning the United States and Israel—have gained “total control of the skies over Iran.”

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