Iran Destroyed the Trump-Vance Bromance

0:00You know, we get less than 1 % of our oil from the strait. When you go, uh, uh. Some countries get much more. Japan gets 95%. China gets 90%. Many of the Europeans get quite a bit. South Korea gets 35%. So we want them to come and help us with the straight, uh. Wait a second. I thought we were the strongest nation on Earth and that we didn't need anybody's help because you were so smart that you would avoid a war with Iran to begin with due to your superior negotiating skills. And now that you've effectively kicked the hornet's nest and it's attacking people, you think the world body should feel obliged to step in and clean up this mess that you've created?

0:44And what is with that slurred speech? It sounds like he's been gargling with Novocaine and his tongue fell asleep and his dentures came loose. So we want them to come and help us with the straight. Never elect anyone over the age of 70 to the presidency again. This is a negligent liability on our part, and shame on all of us for allowing this dog back into the White House. Trump went from unconditional surrender to we will escort the ships to it's not my job in about 72 hours. This international embarrassment is going exactly how the experts called it. And it's driving an even deeper wedge between the America First and MAGA Republicans than ever before, even within the Oval Office itself.

1:27My latest op-ed for Newsweek is supposed to be out tomorrow morning. It's called Iran Destroyed the Trump-Vance Bromance. While J.D. Vance is not openly rebelling against Donald Trump just yet, he appears to be doing something far more subtle and politically sophisticated by positioning himself for the possibility that Trump's gamble with Iran fractures the coalition that built MAGA even further than it already has. Vice presidents rarely get to choose their moment. They blindly follow the president's agenda, defend decisions that they didn't agree to and swallow disagreements that cannot be aired publicly.

2:01But every vice president with presidential ambitions also understands that if history turns against the president, the person best positioned to lead the next phase of the movement will be the one who can say that they saw the danger coming. And over the past week, there have been small signals suggesting that Vance is preparing for that inevitability. The first came from Trump himself. In remarks about the Iran strikes, Donald Trump openly acknowledged that his vice president had been less than enthusiastic about the decision. He was, I would say, philosophically a little bit different than me.

2:36I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going. That phrasing is unusually candid, because presidents rarely broadcast philosophical disagreements with their own vice president during the early days of a conflict. But Trump did, describing J.D. Vance as philosophically a little bit different when it comes to war. Trump never talks like this, unless something is seriously wrong. These words might seem like a nothing burger, but they establish the narrative that Trump ordered the strikes while J.D. Vance had reservations. For now, J.D. Vance has done exactly what a vice president is supposed to do.

3:15But there is something noticeably restrained about his posture, isn't there? Instead of enthusiastically championing the conflict, he is just enough daylight between himself and the policy to make it clear that the decision ultimately belongs with the president. I hate to disappoint you, but I'm not going to show up here and in front of God and everybody else tell you exactly what I said in that classified room, partially because I don't want to go to prison. That distance matters because the MAGA coalition Trump built has always contained two very different factions on foreign policy. One side still believes the traditional Republican approach for asserting American dominance and maintaining overwhelming military power abroad.

3:51It's a worldview that echoes the national security posture that defined the party decades before Trump even arrived. The other half believes that the United States spent the last 20 years trapped in wars that produced little benefit to the American voters who sent Trump to Washington in the first place. This America First camp is deeply skeptical of new conflicts and correctly sees them as the very mistakes Trump originally promised to avoid. And the loudest media voice representing that America First crowd has increasingly been Tucker Carlson. Just to be clear, I'm not a fan. I think he's a weasel, and I don't trust him for personal reasons.

4:24But Carlson is a polarizing figure even among conservative Republicans. But he's also spent years warning that a war with Iran would repeat the same strategic errors that shaped the post-9-11 era. When the strikes began, he did not hesitate to criticize the move. In his telling, the conflict risks pulling the United States back into the kind of interventionist mindset that Trump frequently rejected. So in return, many Trump allies immediately accused Tucker of abandoning the movement and undermining the president during wartime. Trump himself even suggested that Carlson had lost his way. While several Republicans rushed to distance themselves from Carlson, J.D.

4:59Vance did not join the chorus. And just days earlier, he had publicly praised one of Carlson's interviews as a really good conversation that conservatives needed to hear. In the context of the emerging feud between Trump and Carlson, the comment carries more weight than it first appears. Vance has not attacked Carlson. He's not rebuked him. He's not even gently nudged back towards the administration's line. J.D. Vance has simply refused to treat Tucker Carlson as the enemy. And that choice is pretty revealing because Vance's own worldview has always leaned closer to this populist skepticism that Carlson represents than to the traditional hawkish instincts of the Republican establishment.

5:39And he's repeatedly argued that the U.S. should avoid getting dragged into prolonged Middle Eastern conflicts and should instead focus on rebuilding economic strength at home. Our interest, I think, very much is in not going to war with Iran. Right. It would be a huge distraction of resources. it would be massively expensive to our country." In other words, the philosophical divide that Trump casually acknowledged is real. But J.D. Vance appears to be navigating a very careful middle lane. As vice president, he can't openly challenge the administration without appearing disloyal. But as a politician widely viewed as a future presidential contender, he also cannot afford to alienate the populist base that remains deeply skeptical of foreign entanglements.

6:21So, he chose strategic ambiguity. Which is a choice. It's definitely a choice. If this war in Iran somehow ended successfully, J.D. Vance can just point to his loyalty and say that he stood with the administration. But, if the conflict drags on or produces some consequences voters dislike, he would also be able to turn around and say that he had concerns from the beginning. By maintaining a soft spot for the populist skepticism embodied by Carlson, while carefully avoiding an open conflict with Trump, Trump, Vance is clearly leaving himself room to maneuver whenever the political winds begin to shift.

6:57And I guarantee there is a perfect storm brewing. That's it for today. And until we can do it again, it's Newsweek Radio. I'm Jesse Edwards. Catch you next time. Bye. And we say bye bye. Newsweek Radio is a member of the Trust Project. He was, I would say, philosophically a little bit different than me. Our interest, I think, very much is in not going to war with Iran. I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going. Because I don't want to go to prison.