The Super Grifter Responsible for the Iran Debacle [View all]

Julie Roginsky

Everyone, from Republican senators to Donald Trump himself, is blaming JD Vance for helping sell Donald Trump’s grotesque Iran deal. Vance, of course, deserves every ounce of ridicule coming his way. He is the human podcast microphone, the sycophant sent out to wrap humiliation in pseudo-strategic gibberish and call it victory.

But Vance is not the real bad guy here, even though he will be portrayed that way by his enemies inside the White House and Congress, who are legion. He was the one person in Trump’s inner circle who opposed this dumb war from the start, which is why his punishment is to go out and sell its loss. In reality, Vance is the beard, the fall guy, the useful loudmouth shoved in front of the cameras so the real villain can slither away from the wreckage.

Trump’s stunning turnaround has shocked even the president’s strongest allies, who were promised regime change and a denuclearized Iran, only to see the president praising the current Iranian regime and acquiescing to a plan that gifts Iran billions of dollars, allows it supremacy over movement in the Strait of Hormuz, and leaves its nuclear and ballistic missile programs alone. One of Trump’s biggest megadonors is Miriam Adelson, the Israeli-American who owns Israel Hayom, a right-wing newspaper. In an open letter to Trump, the paper’s apoplectic columnist wrote: