Gavin Newsom took a brief break from needling President Donald Trump to troll Vice President JD Vance over the Iran war.
The California governor, 58, used a meme to poke fun at Vance’s involvement in negotiations to put an end to the U.S. and Israel’s war in the Middle East, which has so far killed at least 13 American service members and more than a thousand people in Iran.
Trump, 79, confirmed to reporters on Tuesday that Vance was involved in the talks, along with his son-in-law Jared Kushner, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“JD is involved, and Marco’s involved, and Jared Kushner is involved—very smart guy. And Steve Witkoff, smart guy, is involved, and I’m involved,” he said in the Oval Office.
Newsom’s press office reposted a clip of Trump’s remarks with a popular meme showing a young man pretending to use his physical strength to bring a New York City subway to a halt.
“Live look at JD in the Situation Room,” the office wrote.
Vance’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But the 41-year-old vice president may actually be more important to the Iran talks than it appears to the public, according to sources who spoke to The Guardian.
An Iranian diplomatic source told the outlet that the regime prefers to negotiate with Vance, believing that he is skeptical of the war, rather than Witkoff and Kushner, who led earlier nuclear talks.
“If the negotiations are going to have any outcome, JD Vance should join,” sources told The Guardian. “With Witkoff and Kushner, nothing will come out of it. We have seen that in the past.”
Trump, not to be outdone, made sure to remind the public that he is still the most important figure in the negotiations.
“I’m involved,” he said, after listing all the other administration officials participating in the talks.
“Why? I’m going to be so big, go, ‘Oh I don’t want to talk about it.’ I’m the President of the United States and I’m not going to talk about it,” he continued, before proceeding to talk about it. “It’s beneath me to talk about saving millions of lives, because that’s what you’re talking about. You’re talking about saving millions of lives.”
