JD Vance: The Vice President’s Disappearing Act on Iran has to Stop

There are certain realities both in life and in politics. While the idea of plausible deniability, a term frequently used by the CIA and other intelligence agency’s ability to insulate the President from coups and other covert operations, is interesting, sometimes a person or political party has to take ownership of an event.

There are certain partnerships and marriages in the political landscape that politicians cannot escape. While certainly, a member of an administration in power is not going to agree with every action the President takes, that person still has an obligation to defend the policies of the White House administration these individuals are a part of.

JD Vance has been one of the most effective messengers for a Trump administration that has frequently struggled to strike the right tone both with the President’s MAGA base and the country as well. Indeed, while most of Trump’s policies remain popular with the majority of the country, messaging on issues such as ICE deportations has at times been an issue during the President’s second term.

This is why Vance’s ability to communicate Trump’s policies to the nation so effectively on issues such as the border has been key for this administration. The former Ohio Senator trounced former Vice-Presidential nominee Tim Waltz in the 2024 debate, he is smart and a skilled communicator.

The messaging by the President in his correct but controversial decision to strike Iran has at times, again, been an issue. Trump’s policy efforts have been stellar; he exhausted all diplomatic channels before deciding to take the decisive action in Iran, and the war has gone very well by any remotely reasonable standard. The US has completely degraded the Iranian military and the country’s proxies with minimal loss of life, and while the price of oil has risen nearly $30 a barrel, this increase in energy costs has not significantly impacted the US economy in any material way. And as the Iranian military and political leadership continue to suffer from progressive attrition, it’s reasonable to expect that Iran’s effect on the Strait of Hormuz will be short-lived.

Trump has been decisive in Iran, and his military strike has achieved the desired initial goal of all but eliminating the asymmetrical threat Iran’s drones and proxies posed.

Still, polls again show a split in the sentiment of American about the current conflict, and the President has also been unclear at time about the precise objective of this military action, with Trump saying regime change is not the goal while the joint effort with Israel was eliminating the Supreme Leader of the nation, perhaps twice, and most of the major players atop the regime.

This is why a messenger such as JD Vance could help significantly both in communicating the purpose of the war with the people of the nation, as well as assuaging fears within the base of the party on if this military action is consistent with the core principles of an American first foreign policy. The Vice President, who was known to not support this military action, has been notably missing in action in defending Trump’s decision to strike Iran.

Here the Vance’s actions are simply untenable.

The former Ohio Senator is the Vice President of the United States, and he cannot run or hide from the decisions, particularly ones of this magnitude, by the administration. Vance, who is the presumptive front runner to be the nominee of the party for President in 2028, is obviously not going to resign over Trump’s actions, so he has to own them. The idea that a Vice President can divorce himself from a major decision the President makes is simply absurd, and this administration should ask more from Vance, who was not a prominent Republican before Trump elevated him to be his partner in 2024.

Watching Vance do speeches in North Carolina on economic issues in the middle of a war is absurd. Trump needs his partner out front defending his decision on the networks and directly to the American people.

No one said being Vice President is easy, particularly in a time where the view of the importance of the position has been consistently elevated since the larger role that Dick Cheney had during the Bush years. While Cheney was a clear failure for many reasons, his actions have still changed the perception of this position in American politics from the days of Quayle and Gore.

The primary role of a person in this powerful position is to support and defend both the President and his policies. A Vice President simply cannot hide from the actions of the President on major issues. While Trump was in the rare position of being a lame-duck leader on day one, which created a more ambitious cabinet, the primary focus of all cabinet members of this administration is to defend the actions and policies of the President.

JD Vance should be more out in front defending Trump’s action in Iran.