JD Vance Denies Trump Is at War With Iran Despite U.S. Bombings

Vice President JD Vance on Sunday strenuously denied that President Donald Trump had entered into a war with Iran when he ordered strikes on three nuclear facilities just hours before.

“We’re not at war with Iran, we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” Vance said on NBC’s Meet the Press, kicking off a media tour aimed at explaining the administration’s decision to greenlight the military action.

He quickly pivoted to praising the troops involved in the mission, dubbed “Operation Midnight Hammer,” for their bravery and “extraordinary” skills in carrying out the complex mission.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also echoed Vance during his own appearance on Fox News, saying that the strikes do not signal the start of a “war against Iran.”

Earlier Sunday morning Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the strikes, carried out on Iran’s Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan facilities, had “devastated” the country’s nuclear program — though Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, hedged by saying that it was an “initial” assessment and the Pentagon is still looking at the damage.

Iranian state-run media claimed that all of the facilities were evacuated prior to the attacks and that the damage was minimal.

Questions remain about whether the U.S. will be drawn further into conflict with Iran — and how any ongoing military action would square with Trump and Vance’s promises to keep America out of foreign wars, especially in the Middle East.

Vance said that he understands people’s hesitancy toward another war but urged Americans to trust Trump over “dumb presidents” of the past.

“I empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East,” Vance said on Meet the Press. “I understand the concern, but the difference is that back then we had dumb presidents and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America’s national security objectives.”

On ABC’s This Week, host Jonathan Karl played Vance a pair of statements Trump made about his reticence to start new wars — one the president made on the campaign trail and another from his inaugural address in January.

“I would say to people who are worried about a protracted military conflict. No. 1, the president more than anybody is worried about protracted military conflicts. That is not what we’re getting ourselves involved in,” Vance replied. “What we’re getting ourselves involved in is a very targeted effort to eliminate the Iranian nuclear program.”

“If the Iranians decide to expand this, that’s ultimately their decision,” he added.

Vance’s interview fit with a series of talking points distributed by the White House to Republicans on Capitol Hill Saturday night, according to a memo obtained by NOTUS.

Key to their argument is the idea that “Iran was a nation on the threshold of having a nuclear weapon” — a statement from the memo that has been challenged repeatedly by U.S. intelligence.

Vance on Sunday maintained that the White House has faith in its intelligence apparatus but suggested that the decision to carry out the strikes was based not entirely on evidence pertaining to Iran’s nuclear program but by the country’s decision to stall or even stop negotiating with the United States on the future of its nuclear program.

“Of course, we trust our intelligence community, but we also trust our instincts and we trust what the intelligence was telling us about the Iranians stonewalling the negotiation,” Vance said on Meet the Press. “I think that is the hidden story here, and something the media has got to report a little bit more here, is that the Iranians stopped negotiating in good faith. That was the real catalyst to what the president ultimately decided to do.”

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Brett Bachman is a senior editor at NOTUS.