The White House scrambled Sunday to clarify that J.D. Vance will, in fact, be involved in upcoming Iran talks—after Donald Trump appeared to sideline his vice president following a string of setbacks.
ABC’s Jonathan Karl reported that Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that “Vance will be going to Pakistan for the Iran talks along with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.”
Earlier, during a commercial break Sunday on MSNBC’s The Weekend, host Jacqueline Alemany phoned the president, who “broke some news” about the upcoming talks. When the show returned, co-host Jonathan Capehart said that Trump made clear to Alemany that real estate developer Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner would be involved—but not the vice president.
“You asked him if the vice president was going. He said no,” Capehart said, adding that the vice president cited “security reasons.”
Alemany said Trump suggested the Secret Service didn’t have enough time to prepare for Vance to lead the negotiations again, as he had just last week.
The revelation came as Trump posted on Truth Social that his unnamed “representatives” were heading to Islamabad to resume negotiations Monday evening.
“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!” he wrote.
On X, viewers questioned the explanation, with some suggesting “security reasons” masked frustration with Vance’s diplomatic performance. “Security reasons or his abysmal diplomatic performance thus far?” one person asked, while another hedged: “That’s because Vance wasn’t significantly focused on the most important thing… how can Trump use this opportunity to further enrich himself."
It’s unclear if Vance was set to attend the talks all along.
Minutes prior to Alemany’s revelation, U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz told ABC’s This Week that Vance would, in fact, be leading the Islamabad talks.
Up until this point, Vance has taken the reins in negotiating with Iran. While Leavitt has confirmed that he’s still on the job, his results seem to be falling short of his boss’ expectations.
According to White House insiders, Trump called Vance to check in multiple times during his 21 hours of negotiations last weekend, and went a step further by asking others to weigh in on the VP’s performance.
While the president appears content to wage war on Truth Social, the real-world diplomacy has fallen to Vance—along with the full weight of responsibility.
“If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I’m taking full credit,” Trump said of efforts to secure a deal over Easter.
Despite having tried and failed to secure a war-ending deal with Iran, Vance reportedly stood firmly against entering the conflict to begin with. According to the New York Times, Trump’s vice president deemed the growing war as “massively expensive” and “a huge distraction of resources.”
