Speaking during an interview, Vice President JD Vance shared what advice he gave President Trump before the administration launched its highly controversial, amongst the MAGA movement, attack on the Iranian nuclear program using Tomahawk missiles delivered from submarines and bunker-busting bombs delivered by B-2 stealth bombers.
VP Vance’s comments on the matter came during an interview with Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin that aired on FNC’s “Special Report with Bret Baier.” During the interview, which aired on Friday, the day before the June 21 strikes, Vance explained that he should the president to trust his instincts in deciding whether the military needed to be deployed.
Beginning, the VP explained that he sees the president has some of the best instincts in America for determining what is politically popular and nationally necessary, saying, “The advice that I’m giving him is ‘Sir, trust your instincts.’ He’s got the best instincts of any president I’ve ever seen, of any political leader that I’ve ever seen.”
Building on that, Vance argued that Trump can tell when it is time to end the diplomacy and let the military machine go to work. He said, “I think that he knows when diplomacy has run its course, and he’ll know when, ultimately, he has to employ the American military to make sure that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear program.”
Vance then indicated that the president is not fully in the war camp, explaining that he is going to continue letting the stick and carrot process play out. He said, “I think, as the president said, he’s not going to tell anybody exactly when or what he’s going to do. He’s going to continue working this process.”
Adding to that, Vance further reinforced his point that diplomacy remains on the table (though there has been some military action), saying, “He’s going to let the diplomatic process unfold. And in the meantime, of course, the president of the United States can do whatever he needs to do, whatever he needs to do to keep the American people safe.”
Further, VP Vance explained that the diplomacy will continue until there’s no hope of it working, though suggesting that even then diplomacy would be picked back up after what military action was necessary. He said, “I think that what he said is he’s going to pursue diplomacy until he thinks that there isn’t an opportunity.”
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Adding to his point on that from, the vice president noted. “And once he decides that diplomacy has completely run its course, that we’re not going to get anything out of additional talks, then I think the president is going to do what he needs to do to end Iranian enrichment and end that Iranian nuclear program,”
Concluding, Vance said that Trump would make the final decision, which he apparently did with the attacks, but that he was hoping diplomacy would work. He said, “Again, the president will make that final decision. I do think that we’re running out of time. But as the president said yesterday, he wants to give it a little bit more time to see what diplomacy can accomplish.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: base image screengrab from the embedded video