Vance says he trusts Trump on Iran war, plays down differences

2026-03-16 22:55:00

WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Monday expressed support for the way President Donald Trump was handling the war in Iran and said he trusted him ‌to make sure that “the mistakes of the past” are not repeated.

Vance’s comments appeared to be an effort to counter questions about whether his well-known anti-war and isolationist views put him at odds with Trump. Since the war began on February 28, Vance had not publicly offered unequivocal support for it.

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Part of the speculation ⁠over a possible disagreement had been triggered by Trump’s comments in previous weeks that Vance, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps two decades ago, was “philosophically a little bit different” than him and that he was “maybe less enthusiastic” about attacking Iran.

Vance, asked on Monday if he was “onboard” with the war and whether he had any “hesitation,” said the president has long said Iran should not obtain a nuclear weapon and that he agreed with him.

“I think one big difference is…we have a smart president whereas in ‌the ⁠past, we’ve had dumb presidents and I trust President Trump to get the job done, to do a good job for the American people, and to make sure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated,” said Vance, standing alongside Trump during an Oval Office ⁠event.

Vance, once a self-described “never-Trumper,” wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal in early 2023 saying Trump’s best foreign policy was not starting any wars during his first four years in ⁠office between 2017 to 2021.

“My entire adult lifetime has been shaped by presidents who threw America into unwise wars and failed to win them,” wrote Vance, who ⁠has also been openly critical of Washington sending billions of dollars worth of weapons to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion.

Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Colleen Jenkins and Rosalba O’Brien

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Humeyra Pamuk

Thomson Reuters

Humeyra Pamuk is a senior foreign policy correspondent based in Washington DC. She covers the U.S. State Department, regularly traveling with U.S. Secretary of State. During her 20 years with Reuters, she has had postings in London, Dubai, Cairo and Turkey, covering everything from the Arab Spring and Syria’s civil war to numerous Turkish elections and the Kurdish insurgency in the southeast. In 2017, she won the Knight-Bagehot fellowship program at Columbia University’s School of Journalism. She holds a BA in International Relations and an MA on European Union studies.

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Bo Erickson

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Bo Erickson is a US politics correspondent based in Washington, DC. He covers Congress and reports on how lawmakers’ decisions impact their constituents far from the capital, as well as federal funding decisions and the fights over the “power of the purse.” Previously, he reported on the White House and presidential campaigns for CBS News. He is proud to be a Minnesotan at heart.

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