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'Lipstick on a very ugly pig': Inside Vance's hard sell on Iran
The vice president, a private skeptic of the war, has become the public defender of an interim agreement critics across the political spectrum call a giveaway.
‘Lipstick on a very ugly pig’: Inside Vance’s hard sell on Iran www.ms.now/news/iran-ta...
— MS NOW (@ms.now) 2026-06-23T00:47:01.597Z
https://www.ms.now/news/iran-talks-vance
Vice President JD Vance privately opposed the U.S. war with Iran. Now, he’s the public face of selling its result as a win — even as critics across the political spectrum characterize it as a capitulation.
The vice president emerged from negotiations in Switzerland on Monday touting a measure of success: Iran’s reported agreement to allow U.N. nuclear inspectors back into the country. But virtually all of the larger, pricklier items — including the future of Iran’s nuclear program — were left for future talks.
The choice of Vance, an anti-interventionist with limited high-level foreign policy experience, as the lead negotiator and defender of the 14-point interim memorandum of understanding surprised some inside the White House and its orbit. One White House official, who was granted anonymity to speak openly about internal dynamics, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the nation’s top diplomat, avoided becoming the face of the deal because he understood how unlikely it was to succeed. Vance, by contrast, believes a triumphant deal with Iran is not out of reach, the official told MS NOW.
Vance was adamantly against the conflict from the start, according to multiple current and former U.S. officials and people close to the administration who spoke with MS NOW. But with months of high gas prices driven by the war endangering Republicans in the midterm elections, Trump wants out more than ever before...
Much of what Vance achieved in Switzerland was procedural. Committees were formed, communication channels were established and a roadmap was drafted for future talks. The substance — Iran’s nuclear program chief among it — was left for another day. The discussions were “constructive but tense,” according to one person familiar with them, with much of the progress centered on procedure rather than terms. And the fragile architecture Vance assembled remains vulnerable to the same force that nearly upended it in real time: a president thousands of miles away who can rewrite the terms with a single post.
The vice president emerged from negotiations in Switzerland on Monday touting a measure of success: Iran’s reported agreement to allow U.N. nuclear inspectors back into the country. But virtually all of the larger, pricklier items — including the future of Iran’s nuclear program — were left for future talks.
The choice of Vance, an anti-interventionist with limited high-level foreign policy experience, as the lead negotiator and defender of the 14-point interim memorandum of understanding surprised some inside the White House and its orbit. One White House official, who was granted anonymity to speak openly about internal dynamics, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the nation’s top diplomat, avoided becoming the face of the deal because he understood how unlikely it was to succeed. Vance, by contrast, believes a triumphant deal with Iran is not out of reach, the official told MS NOW.
Vance was adamantly against the conflict from the start, according to multiple current and former U.S. officials and people close to the administration who spoke with MS NOW. But with months of high gas prices driven by the war endangering Republicans in the midterm elections, Trump wants out more than ever before...
Much of what Vance achieved in Switzerland was procedural. Committees were formed, communication channels were established and a roadmap was drafted for future talks. The substance — Iran’s nuclear program chief among it — was left for another day. The discussions were “constructive but tense,” according to one person familiar with them, with much of the progress centered on procedure rather than terms. And the fragile architecture Vance assembled remains vulnerable to the same force that nearly upended it in real time: a president thousands of miles away who can rewrite the terms with a single post.
Vance will never become POTUS
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