Whiplash over the Iran war intensified on Monday as Donald Trump made conflicting claims about the whereabouts of his Vice President JD Vance.
As the war entered another day, the 79-year-old president struggled to keep his plans straight, adding to confusion about where things stand.
On Sunday, the president said Vance wasn’t going to Pakistan to lead the peace talks with Iran.
Trump had told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that Vance would not be part of the U.S. delegation for the next round of talks. “It’s only because of security,” he insisted.
Then it turned out that the vice president was, indeed, going to Islamabad. Shortly after Karl broadcast his information, direct from Trump, on This Week, Karoline Leavitt told other reporters on the record that Vance was going.
And on Monday, the befuddled president said his number two was in the air, only for Vance to turn up at the White House.
A similar pattern played out. Trump told the New York Post that Vance was already in the air to Islamabad in Pakistan to prepare for the meetings alongside his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
But before the morning was out, reality had intervened: JD Vance’s motorcade was spotted arriving at the White House.
The tenuous ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. was also due to expire on Tuesday evening. But it has since been extended to Wednesday night, with the White House not ruling out a further extension—although Trump says this is “highly unlikely” if a deal is not reached before then.
And on Sunday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN that he did not expect gas prices to fall below $3 a gallon until at least 2027.
However, by Monday, Trump rejected his top energy official, telling The Hill that Trump was “totally wrong” and that prices would dip “as soon as” the war ends.
But when exactly the war will end is the great unknown, with both sides at loggerheads over Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, its nuclear ambitions, and the future of the Strait of Hormuz, where 20 percent of oil usually flows.
To complicate things further, Tehran on Monday initially refused to commit to more peace talks and accused Washington of “banditry and piracy” over its blockade of Iranian ports.
Trump’s latest mixed messages underscore the chaos surrounding the war as the administration searches for an offramp.
It also comes amid reports that Trump’s erratic temperament was on full display earlier this month after a U.S. F-15 fighter jet was shot down over Iran, prompting a high-stakes rescue mission to retrieve two missing airmen.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump “screamed at aides for hours” and was then “kept out of the room” while his team was given minute-by-minute updates.
Trump has nonetheless sought to convey confidence over the way he is running the war, writing in a Truth Social post on Monday: “The Anti-America Fake News Media is rooting for Iran to win, but it’s not going to happen, because I’m in charge!”
Trump decided to join Israel to strike Tehran on February 28.
Since then, at least 13 US service officers have been killed as part of the conflict, gas prices have soared, and Republicans have become increasingly panicked about their election prospects as the midterm elections loom in November.
Meanwhile, a new poll released over the weekend showed Trump’s approval rating sinking to the lowest point of his presidency, with only 37% of Americans approving of Trump’s performance.
Democratic National Committee spokesperson Jaelin O’Halloran said Republicans were panicking.
“Americans are being squeezed by sky-high prices, made even worse as Trump forces them to foot the bill for his unpopular war with Iran,” she said.
