On Monday night's edition of "Special Report," Fox News anchor Bret Baier informed the Vice President of the United States that President Trump had gone public with a huge announcement – a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. The news marked the culmination of two behemoth persuasion campaigns for the administration: one, to bring fierce hostilities between the two countries to a draw; the other, to convince Americans, including some skeptical America First types and Republicans, of the wisdom of President Trump’s airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear program in the first place.
It was fitting that Vice President Vance was live and on-air for such a moment. No member of the administration, besides of course the president himself, has been a more effective public advocate and defender of this White House’s foreign policy, especially in regard to Iran.
With President Trump leading the way, Vance has united most of the America First supporters and Republicans around the president’s actions. He has faced hostile interviewers on major television networks and clearly explained the administration’s overarching interest in the conflict – preventing Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon without seeking regime change or deploying ground troops. In doing so, he’s positioned the president’s bold moves in the broader context of the America First foreign policy agenda, unifying the Republican coalition and talking so-called “Panics” off the ledge.
He's done this effectively on both TV and via social media. While President Trump is the world’s undisputed champion of social media, Vice President Vance has earned the well-deserved title of close runner-up. While the vice president doesn’t imitate the president online, his appeal is due to the same key factor: authenticity.
Vance, who runs his own X account, first weighed in on the Iran-Israel conflict in a lengthy message on the platform last Tuesday. It came amid escalating debate among Republicans about U.S. involvement in the 12-Day War. Vance has frequently criticized "forever wars" and is widely viewed as an advocate for restraint, which helped him ease jitters and relieve intra-GOP tensions in the lead-up to the strikes. As Vance put it in his X post, "I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue."
A few days later, the president dispatched seven B-2 bombers to completely destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The operation was a complete success. On Saturday night, immediately after the attacks, President Trump gave a speech, with Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth beside him. This group served as a visual reminder of the unity within the White House and the Make America Great Again movement.
The next morning, the vice president went on the Sunday show circuit, fielding questions from both ABC’s Jonathan Karl and NBC’s deeply partisan Kristen Welker. Operating on minimal sleep, Vance effectively argued in favor of President Trump’s decision, as well as why the administration would not commit Americans to yet another open-ended conflict in the Middle East. As he has for weeks, he outlined the dangers posed by Iran’s high levels of uranium enrichment, the unacceptable risk it poses to the American people, and the administration’s overarching goal: not to wage war on Iran, but to end its nuclear weapons program once and for all.
Now, thanks to the expert diplomacy of President Trump, with Vice President Pence and the rest of the administration in close support, America’s position in the Middle East has never been stronger. For the first time in recent memory, the region is trending toward an enduring peace.
It's a tremendous benefit for this administration to be able to mobilize a senior leader to not only fend off hostile interviewers, but even more so, in the midst of such a high-stakes game of international diplomacy, calmly, rationally, and clearly articulate the administration’s goals to wider audiences.
In July 2024, some left-leaning, and even right-leaning, pundits expressed bafflement over President Trump’s selection of then-Sen. JD Vance as his running mate. Vance was a first-term senator from Ohio, a state the president was already expected to win, and he lacked the name recognition of some of the other veepstakes contenders. But some of us pushing Vance for vice president knew he would make an excellent running mate whose pick would also signal something else: A younger choice would show the world that Trump was serious about America First being a long-lasting movement. After the shellacking Vance delivered to Tim Walz during the vice-presidential debate, the pick began to make sense even to skeptics.
Six months into the administration, it’s clear that President Trump’s bet on JD is paying serious dividends. He didn’t choose Vance simply as a campaign asset. He picked him because, aside from the president himself, there simply is no one out there who more deeply understands or is capable of articulating the meaning of “MAGA” to the world.
Ned Ryun is the founder and CEO of American Majority.
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