JD Vance wants to negotiate the end of the war with Iran. Trump has pulled Vance off that effort. Why?
Let’s speculate!
No Peace Prize for You, JD
A Vance-negotiated end to the war would position Vance for a run at the Nobel Peace prize, or as Trump calls it “the Pulitzer Prize.” Trump can’t allow that. He wants that prize–whatever it’s called–for himself.
No Presidency for You, JD
Maybe Trump wants to stymie Vance’s presidential ambitions. If so, then Trump’s action might seem gratuitous, since Vance is perfectly well-equipped to stymie his own presidential ambitions without Trump’s help. After all, the more the voters see of Vance, the less they’ll like him.
But that’s probably not sufficient insurance for Trump. After all, Trump also is a despicable character, and he got elected twice.
So perhaps to ensure that Vance’s presidential prospects are torpedoed, Trump has not only pulled Vance off Iran negotiations, but has put him in charge of finding fraud in Democratic states. That is the political equivalent of sending Vance to Siberia.
In saying this, I am not denying that there’s probably some fraud in Democratic states. But it’s difficult to imagine a more effective way to bury someone than putting him in charge of investigating fraud in all of the Democratic-run states. That’s a lot of possible fraud to ferret out, or to make up out of whole cloth.
In short, it’s a fool’s errand. Admittedly, there are few people who are as qualified as JD Vance is for a fool’s errand. In fact, sitting here now, the only people I can think of who possess equal qualifications for a fool’s errand are Pete Hegseth, Todd Blanche, Kash Patel, Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick, Peter Navarro, Linda McMahon, Bill Pulte, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Markwayne Mullin, the White House Counsel’s office, the White House Communications Office, a large number of former members of the Administration, most Republican House and Senate members, and Donald Trump himself. (I’m sure others will spring to mind as soon as I post this.)
Nevertheless, despite his eminent qualifications for fool’s errands, Vance’s efforts are bound to result in everybody detesting him even more than they do now.
As to who came up with this brilliant and devious idea, I have some thoughts, but will spare you from reading them.
Non-Vance-Related Reasons to Pull Vance from Iran Negotiations
Perhaps Trump doesn’t want Vance to negotiate the end of the Iran war because Trump either wants to declare that the war’s already over or he wants to resume military operations. Hell, maybe he wants to do both!
There was lots of speculation at the beginning of the war–including by yours truly–that at some point Trump would simply declare “victory” and walk away, especially if things weren’t going well. Scuttling negotiations fits perfectly with a plan to declare victory and turn tail and run. It’s simple and fast–simpler and faster than negotiations would be.
Negotiations also would be unnecessary if Trump is planning more strikes.
These possible explanations for pulling Vance off the negotiations are compatible with the secondary goal of sabotaging Vance by putting him in charge of investigating fraud in blue states. But under these explanations, sabotaging Vance would just be a side benefit.
***
Whatever your theory of why Trump has done what he had done to Vance, there’s one thing about Trump’s action that I think we can all agree upon: Trump has stepped all over Vance’s plan to make himself a distinguished statesman. And all Vance can do at this point is seethe and suck it up.
This is fine by me. After all, an unhappy JD Vance is something worth savoring.