JD Vance was advised to check his phone for updates on the war during a press conference as he struggled to keep up with his boss’s escalatory attacks against Iran.
The jet-setting vice president was caught off guard as he stood on the world stage alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, moments after Donald Trump put out an incendiary post warning that a “whole civilization” will die tonight if Iran does not make a deal by his 8 pm deadline.
Asked by a Washington Post reporter if he had any new information to believe a deal could be reached, Vance initially replied: “I don’t—unless I have a text message from Steve Witkoff,” who is Trump’s Middle East envoy.
But as he reached into his pocket for his phone, the vice president realized in real time that things were changing.
“I do have a message from Steve Witkoff,” he acknowledged somewhat awkwardly after glancing at the text.
“Wouldn’t you like to know the subject of this message?” he added. “But no, uh, I need to read it first before I talk about it. But here’s, here’s… uh, what time is it in the United States right now?”
Vance was in Budapest on Tuesday morning to show support for Orbán, a far-right leader facing a serious risk of losing Hungary’s April 12 election.
The uncomfortable moment was followed up by another question from a Reuters reporter, who told Vance he might want to check his phone properly.
“I do think you have to read that text because we have reporting that the United States is striking some targets in Kharg Island,” she said.
“You did say that the military objectives of this war have been achieved. So could you help us understand why the president is still threatening to attack every bridge and every power plant in Iran?”
The war is sensitive for Vance, who served in the Marines and whose political reputation was built on his opposition to foreign intervention—a position that was shaped by his brief deployment in Iraq.
Now, as the standard-bearer of MAGA’s anti-interventionist wing, he has struggled to thread the needle on a war that could become a political liability for him later on.
This was clear as he appeared on stage just as Trump had put out his wild post, threatening to wipe out Iran, a country of 95 million people whose citizens he once claimed he could help save from a tyrannical regime.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump declared on Truth Social.
“However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?” he added.
Vance, meanwhile, did his best to explain the increasingly volatile situation.
“So you asked about Kharg Island,” he responded to Reuters’ question.
“You know, my understanding, you know, having talked to Pete (Hegseth) and General Caine about this, is that we were going to strike some military targets on Kharg Island, and I believe we have done so.
“(The president)... has said very clearly, that we’re not going to strike energy and infrastructure targets until the Iranians either make a proposal that we can get behind or don’t make a proposal. But he’s given them until Tuesday, at 8 o’clock, so I don’t think the news on Kharg Island represents a change in strategy.”
Kharg Island is an export hub off Iran’s coast, which has been an economic lifeline for the country, handling about 90% of its crude oil exports.
As tensions escalated over the oil standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. struck the island for the first time in March, claiming at the time that 90 targets had been hit, including “naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers, and multiple other military sites.”
But news that it had been hit again on Tuesday came after Trump put out a wild, expletive-filled post on Sunday, warning Iran: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F----n’ Strait, you crazy b-----ds, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!”
The wild tirade sparked calls to invoke the 25th Amendment, a constitutional mechanism allowing the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare a president unable to perform the duties of office.
“The president of the United States is a man who recognizes leverage,” Vance said on Tuesday.
“That if the Iranians want to exact a certain amount of pain, the United States has the ability to exact much, much greater pain.”
