Vice President JD Vance has been evading questions about his seemingly inexplicable turn on foreign wars. Apparently, Vance has a “reasonable” explanation for his shift: Trump is the first “smart” president he’s seen in his lifetime.
It hasn’t even been a decade since Vance was making some of the most heinous statements about Trump, even reportedly saying at one point that Trump reminded him of Hitler. But as soon as Trump cozied up to the tech industry, Vance and his mentor, Peter Thiel, found a place within MAGA. Vance has since been championing his evangelist ideology, pushing how Trump’s immigration policy aligns with MAGA.
Still, Vance has long been a vowed critic of foreign wars and what he perceives as futile foreign interventionism. According to The Hill, however, Vance now sees things differently. He said, “You’re trying to drive a wedge between members of the administration, between me and the president. What the president has said consistently, going back to 2015 — and I agree with him — is that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon.”
Vance shared that he now views everything differently under their administration. He explained, “I think all of us, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, should pray for success and pray for the safety of our troops. That’s the approach I’ve taken, making it as successful as possible.” He continued, “We have a smart president, whereas in the past, we’ve had dumb presidents.”
The Vice President, who apparently has his own ambitions for the presidency after Trump’s final term, said that he trusts Trump will ultimately get the job done in the Middle East. And Vance should hope he’s backing the right horse, because these kinds of misadventures tend to hang over a politician — not just for the rest of their career, but the rest of their life.
Trump was clearly delighted to hear that there was someone still backing him after NATO gave him a cold shoulder and even some members of the intelligence community began resigning over the war. Trump explained, “I think JD understands better than most that if you give Iran a nuclear weapon, at least a very substantial part of the world will be blown up — and it will be used almost immediately.”
Previously, Trump had lamented that his vice president was “less enthusiastic” about the war and that it took a while before they started to “get along” on the stated goal of this war — which now seems to have shifted back to being about nuclear weapons. The reasoning has changed repeatedly, moving from freeing Iranians to concerns about an Iranian attack to what is now being framed as part of a 47-year ongoing conflict.
When Joe Kent tendered his resignation as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, he took to X to write, “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.
— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) March 17, 2026
I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this… pic.twitter.com/prtu86DpEr
So if this war does not end as quickly as the administration expects — and if it affects the economy in ways that are irreversible in the short term — these statements will go on to define Vance: a leader only interested in self-preservation, even when he knows better.
Published: Mar 18, 2026 07:24 am