Trump cracks a joke; Vance may pay the price on Iran

Administration Trump cracks a joke; Vance may pay the price on Iran Comments: by Amie Parnes - 06/20/26 12:00 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Amie Parnes - 06/20/26 12:00 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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President Trump cracked a joke Wednesday about who would get credit — or blame — for his administration’s Iran deal.

If the Iran effort succeeds, Trump said, he would take the credit. If it fails, he said he would blame Vice President Vance.

“You better be careful, JD!” the president quipped. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the hawk who pushed for the war at the outset, stood quietly alongside the president.

The remark drew laughs. But it also underscored a political reality that has emerged in recent weeks, particularly during the Iran war and the negotiations to end it. As the talks for the deal unfolded, it was Vance — not Rubio — who took center stage.

The arrangement has caused chatter about why Vance — who was initially opposed to the war — has emerged as the administration’s most visible voice on the matter, a noticeable shift from earlier.

It also sets up the idea that Vance has political ownership over what has been an unpopular war, which could be a risky proposition should he be thinking of mounting a presidential bid in two years.

“It was a terrible day for Vice President Vance and his 2028 presidential aspirations,” said one former Trump staffer. “You have Republicans like Lindsey Graham already labeling this ‘the Vance deal’ and President Trump has now supercharged that notion. … And if you noticed, Rubio was standing there stone silent.”

“This is a very s‑‑‑ deal for JD Vance,” the former Trump staffer said.

The timing has only elevated the conversation around Vance — in part because he is on a book tour.

As the administration has navigated the fallout from the war and the subsequent negotiations, Vance has been promoting his new book, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” sitting down for a number of high-profile interviews where he is asked about the deal with the undercurrent of his 2028 plans looming over the discussions.

On Thursday, the vice president appeared at the White House briefing, where for the second time in recent weeks he subbed for White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. He fielded a number of questions on the Iran deal and ongoing talks with the country.

He also issued a warning to Israel and loyalists to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who have criticized the deal: “If I was in the Cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” he said.

When a reporter asked what he made of Trump’s joke a day earlier, he brushed it off: “I think the president was joking as he often does.”

But Republican strategists and political observers said while Trump made the quip in jest, they viewed it as an acknowledgment of political reality and that the president will in fact blame Vance and others if it falls apart.

“If the deal goes well, Trump will take the credit. If it goes south, like on everything else, Trump will point the finger elsewhere,” longtime Republican strategist Doug Heye said. “But Trump being Trump, he can point the finger at someone one minute and someone else the next. No one is safe.

“Saying yes to Trump means knowing that Donald Trump doesn’t give points. He only takes them away, one at a time. And you could be next,” Heye added.

Susan Del Percio, the veteran Republican strategist who does not support Trump, agreed with that sentiment on the president’s joke about Vance.

“I think it means if it doesn’t go well, he’s going to say there was a breakdown in communications that Vance was handling,” Del Percio said. “He’s never had a problem blaming other people for his faults.”

At the same time, the spotlight on Vance has taken some of the political heat off Rubio, who early in the conflict was cast as one of the administration’s most principal advocates for military action.

Since then, Axios reported that Rubio privately argued against the deal, pointing to intelligence memos that said it would be unlikely that Iran would walk away from plans to produce a nuclear weapon.

“Rubio is the happiest [when] he’s not front and center” on the issue, Del Percio said.

Allies of Vance maintain that he was effective in bringing an end to the conflict and that the reason Trump put him front and center of a deal in the first place is because the president trusts him with settling such an important matter.

Strategists say Vance could benefit from the deal if it holds up and proves to be successful. But if the vice president does plan to run for president in 2028, as many expect, he could find it difficult to separate himself from such an unpopular war.

To underscore the point, Del Percio pointed to former Vice President Kamala Harris and how she had difficulty distancing herself from former President Biden’s policies during the 2024 presidential race.

“And she could have without Biden retribution,” she said. “Vance can’t.”

The former Trump staffer also predicted Vance will be boxed in on the war.

“Let’s put it this way, the guy who didn’t want to go to war is owning the peace agreement,” the staffer said.