Just a few weeks into his brief career on Capitol Hill, then-Sen. JD Vance wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, touting then-candidate Donald Trump’s vision. “Trump’s Best Foreign Policy? Not Starting Any Wars,” the headline on the Ohio Republican’s piece read. The subhead added, “He has my support in 2024 because I know he won’t recklessly send Americans to fight overseas.”
Two years later, Vance — ostensibly a skeptic of interventionist foreign policy — is now Trump’s vice president, a role that requires him to defend the White House as the president launches preemptive military strikes in the Middle East. As NBC News reported, his pitch still needs some work.
‘I certainly empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East,’ Vance said on ‘Meet the Press.’ ‘I understand the concern, but the difference is that back then, we had dumb presidents, and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America’s national security objectives.’
There are basically two elements to Vance’s pitch. The first is that other American presidents were idiots, but Trump — the former gameshow host who thought it’d be a good idea to inject disinfectants into people to treat Covid — is secretly a brilliant strategic mastermind.
The second can effectively be reduced to, “Trust us.”
Vance: I empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East. I understand the concern, but the difference is that back then we had dumb presidents
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-06-22T14:27:31.879Z
This comes up more than it should. Tariffs are wreaking economic havoc? “Trust us,” the administration says. How is it legal for the president to keep refusing to enforce laws he doesn’t like? “Trust us,” the administration says. Why will the country benefit from slashing Medicaid in order to pay for tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires? “Trust us,” the administration says.
The problem with the appeal as it relates to Iran is that Trump has proven himself to be a prolific liar, undeserving of the benefit of the doubt — a problem that is made worse by the fact that he’s proven to be especially untrustworthy on this issue specifically.
After the president announced the completion of Saturday’s mission in Iran, House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a written statement that the preemptive attack “should serve as a clear reminder to our adversaries and allies that President Trump means what he says.” Soon after, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth added, “When this president speaks, the world should listen.” But the chest-thumping was absurd. The idea that Trump “means what he says” is contradicted by the fact that the president said he wanted Iran to come to the table for nuclear talks — and created a two-week window just two days before he approved military strikes in the country he claimed he wanted to negotiate with. Indeed, in recent months, the White House’s stated policies toward Iran have veered all over the place, swerving wildly between calls for diplomacy and calls to evacuate the country’s largest city. Even after Saturday’s strikes targeting Iranian nuclear sites, the president insisted they were “completely and totally obliterated” — a claim that even members of his own team refused to endorse because it’s completely unsupported, at least for now, by real-world evidence. To hear Vance tell it, everything will be fine because Trump knows what he’s doing. The follow-up question is obvious: Why in the world would anyone believe this?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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