Addressing a Turning Point USA event in Georgia, Vice President J.D. Vance discussed the 20-plus hours of negotiations with Iran where he led the U.S. delegation. He said that Trump “doesn’t want to make, like, a small deal. He wants to make the grand bargain.”
Vance added, “That’s the trade that he’s offering,” and that Trump is telling Iran, “If you guys commit to not having a nuclear weapon, we are going to make Iran thrive.”
“We’re going to make it economically prosperous, and we’re going to invite the Iranian people into the world economy in a way they haven’t been in my entire life,” the vice president said.
A day before coming to Georgia, Vance tried to laugh off the meme as a joke that “a lot of people weren’t understanding.” The vice president also seemed to echo Trump’s assertions that Leo concentrate less on global affairs.
“It would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what’s going on in the Catholic church and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” Vance said in a Fox News interview.
On stage in Athens, he shifted his arguments, saying he welcomes Leo’s comments even if he disagrees with them.
“At the very least, it invites conversation,” said Vance, who converted to Catholicism as an adult.
Still, Vance questioned Leo anew, pushing back specifically at the pope’s Palm Sunday assertion that God does not hear the prayers of those who make war. Leo was quoting scripture from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Vance asked whether God was on the side of Allied forces in World War II as they liberated Jewish survivors of Nazi extermination camps.
“I certainly think the answer is yes,” Vance said, suggesting the pontiff has muddled centuries of “just war theory” and insisting that when Leo talks about complex theology, “it’s very important for the pope to be careful.”
The vice president credited the late conservative activist with being the glue within the Republican Party on divisive issues.
“Charlie would be the guy who was talking to the people who really wanted to go to war with Iran, and the people who really didn’t want to go to war with Iran,” said Vance, speaking at an event in Georgia hosted by Turning Point USA, the group Kirk found. “And he would try to find ways for those guys to work together, even if they disagreed over one issue, right. And so Charlie’s absence is a huge thing.”
Kirk was assassinated in September during a Turning Point USA event at a Utah university.
Kirk had raised concerns last year as Trump was weighing U.S. involvement as Israel launched what would turn into a 12-day war on Iran. The conservative activist made the case that direct U.S. involvement in the conflict could be seen as a betrayal to some members of Trump’s coalition and cause a schism in MAGA world.
Trump ultimately decided to launch limited strikes that badly damaged three Iranian nuclear facilities during that conflict.
“A lot of young voters don’t love the policy we have in the Middle East. I understand that,” Vance said.
But, rather than offering a full-throated defense for the war, the vice president urged conservative activists who disagree with the Trump administration on top issues to avoid becoming “disengaged.”
