JD Vance Proves Irony Is Dead as He Calls Out “Preposterous” Behavior

On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance declared that it would be “scandalous,” “preposterous,” and “unacceptable” to threaten the leadership of an allied nation—something President Trump has done multiple times in his second term.

Vance was commenting on a flippant remark last month by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy—who is currently beefing with Hungary’s authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—who suggested Ukrainian soldiers could show up at Orbán’s home to “communicate with him in his own language.”

“I wasn’t even aware that Zelenskiy said that he was gonna send private soldiers to the prime minister’s residence until yesterday.… Almost couldn’t believe it’s true, but it’s true. It’s completely scandalous,” Vance said while speaking at a panel at a Hungarian university as part of his diplomatic support tour for Orbán. “You should never have a foreign ‌head ⁠of government … threatening the head of government of an allied nation.”

This comment is “preposterous.” Trump spent the first months of his second term doing exactly what Vance is warning about, threatening to fold the entire country of Canada—perhaps the closest U.S. ally—into the “fifty-first state.” This threat was so widely detested in Canada that it helped propel current Prime Minister Mark Carney to an election victory off pure spite.

Trump also threatened to annex Greenland for no real reason other than classic Manifest Destiny–style greed, and threatened to both bomb and invade Mexico against the will of President Claudia Sheinbaum, another crucial ally. And both Vance and Trump have threatened Zelenskiy on multiple occasions, even as he fends off an invasion from Russian President Vladimir Putin, an obvious foe.

Orbán, a longtime ally of Trump and the MAGA movement, is also a staunch opponent of Ukraine and Zelenskiy. Orbán is currently blocking a $105 billion European Union loan for Ukraine in response to what it claims was a targeted shutdown of the Druzhba oil pipeline, which carries Russian oil to Hungary and the rest of Europe. That opposition led Zelenskiy to make the private soldiers comment.

Both Orbán and Trump have made much more detestable statements toward allies than Zelenskiy. The vice president is trying to gaslight you.

It doesn’t seem as though any American is satisfied with Donald Trump’s Iran peace plan—not even some of his staunchest congressional allies.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham implored the Trump administration Tuesday to test the merits of the proposal via a congressional review, akin to the handling of the Iranian nuclear deal struck under former President Barack Obama in 2015.

“At this early stage, I am extremely cautious regarding what is fact vs. fiction or misrepresentation,” Graham emphasized, hours after Trump announced he was capitulating to Iranian demands.

In the final hour of Trump’s total annihilation deadline, the U.S. leader posted on Truth Social that the two countries had agreed to a two-week ceasefire and that the White House was amenable to a 10-point peace plan that Iran had offered the day prior.

Those points include various demands for an immediate end to the regional violence, including proposals for a permanent end to the war, guarantees that Iran and its allies would not be attacked again, an end to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, and a halt to all regional attacks.

But the multipoint deal also seeks the lifting of all U.S. and international sanctions on Iran, and the imposition of a new $2 million toll per ship through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil tradeway situated between Iran and Oman.

Versions of the ceasefire plan distributed in Farsi—Iran’s native language—include an additional phrase not included in the English edition, specifying the “acceptance of enrichment” for Iran’s nuclear program.

It’s hard to see how the deal would offer any benefits to the U.S., though the final point undermines Trump’s rationale for the war entirely: The president’s primary interest in fighting Iran was to cripple the country’s nuclear program, stripping any potential for the country to create a nuclear weapon.

“Allowing this regime to enrich in the future would be an affront to all those murdered by the regime since this war started and would be inconsistent with denying Iran a pathway toward a bomb in the future,” Graham continued in a social media post Wednesday morning. “Many countries have peaceful nuclear power but do not enrich uranium. At a minimum, that should be the case for Iran.

“To those who say, Iran needs to save face by having a small enrichment program, I’m not remotely interested in providing face-saving cover to a regime that murders its own people, beats a 16-year-old girl to death for not wearing a headscarf appropriately, and is dripping in American blood,” Graham added.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took questions from the press Wednesday after a two-week ceasefire was agreed in the Iran war, and he was about as whiny as you’d expect from a psychopath who’d just been told he couldn’t destroy all of Iran’s civilian infrastructure.

During the conference, Luis Martinez of ABC News asked Hegseth whether his comments such as saying U.S. forces “will give no quarter” to Iran potentially put American lives at risk.

Thirteen U.S. service members have died since the Trump administration, without congressional approval, began bombing Iran on February 28. A Pentagon spokesperson told Time that 373 service members have been injured in the conflict, with five “seriously wounded.”

But Hegseth bristled at the idea that he might be at all responsible for the suffering.

“No!” he said. “I try to be nice up here, but you did listen to what I said, right? ... Of course, it’s ABC. Not a single thing we’ve done has put an American troop in more of a harm’s way. We’ve only set our troops up to harm Iranian military capabilities, which they’ve done to devastating fashion.”

Of course, starting what has proven to be a completely unnecessary war in the first place should make Hegseth and the rest of Trump’s cronies responsible for everything that happens there. Just as military commanders claim credit for their victories, they must also reconcile for their losses.

But Martinez’s question was about Hegseth’s comments while the war was still ongoing. In this respect, the defense secretary has frightened many with his extremist intonations.

“Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness,” Hegseth said during a March 26 prayer meeting, which he ordered to be held at the Pentagon. “Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”

At other press conferences, Hegseth has gloated that U.S. forces “are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be,” and that under his rule, the military does not fight “with stupid rules of engagement.”

It’s not a stretch to think that Hegseth’s bloodthirsty directives have led troops to be overly aggressive in the region, risking their lives in the process. His blatant dismissal of the rules of war also likely means Iran’s forces feel they have carte blanche to do horrible things to our own troops.

When a jet was downed last week, Iranian state media told civilians that they would receive a “prize” for hunting down the missing crew member and handing them in.

Even some of Hegseth’s fellow right-wing Christians, such as Tucker Carlson, have pushed back on his war of aggression. Carlson told ABC News shortly after the first bombs fell he thought the war was “absolutely disgusting and evil.”

Donald Trump is already running cover for Israel.

The U.S. president agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran Tuesday evening, adding in a Truth Social post that he was amenable to a 10-point peace plan that political strategists have pointed out overwhelmingly benefits Tehran.

One point in the list of demands specifies “an end to attacks on Iran and its allies.” Yet despite the concession, Israeli airstrikes continued to rain on Lebanon overnight, marking the single largest attack on the country’s capital since the beginning of the war.

When asked Wednesday about the continued violence in the region by America’s strongest Middle East ally, Trump suddenly claimed that Lebanon was “not included in the deal.”

“Because of Hezbollah,” Trump told PBS Newshour’s Liz Landers. “They were not included in the deal. That’ll get taken care of too. It’s alright.”

But Iran did not interpret the arrangement the same way. Iranian media reported Wednesday morning that Tehran would pull out of the ceasefire agreement altogether if the attacks on Lebanon did not stop. Minutes earlier, state media had reported that the country was considering deterrence operations against Israel over the ceasefire violation.

When Landers asked Trump whether he was alright with Israel’s actions, the president claimed that “it’s part of the deal” and “everyone knows that.”

“That’s a separate skirmish. OK?” Trump added. “You gotta talk faster.”

The chief executive hung up the phone when asked if he regretted his Truth Social post about wiping out the entire Iranian civilization.

It was the influence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—and a pitch for the war delivered on February 11 in the White House situation room—that thrust America into the conflict, according to a New York Times report published Tuesday. U.S. military commanders advised Trump that components of Netanyahu’s plan to attack Iran were “farcical,” but by that point, Trump had already been inspired to throw over Tehran’s theocratic regime.

It’s likely that Netanyahu continues to hold the reins. Last month, Trump told The Times of Israel that the decision to end the Iran war will be a “mutual” decision he makes with the Israeli leader.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth contradicted a major Trump administration talking point regarding the state of Iran’s ruling regime.

A reporter asked Hegseth at a press conference Wednesday whether the U.S. was still encouraging the Iranian people to rise up against their government, and what the two-week ceasefire meant for that. Hegseth’s answer went against the administration’s claim that regime change has already occurred.

“Listen, I would love to see the Iranian people take advantage of this opportunity. They have been oppressed by the previous regime, and they’ll have a new opportunity with this regime. That remains to be seen. That was not our objective in this effort. They’re brave people, horrible things have been done to them,” Hegseth replied.

President Trump and his senior officials have insisted for weeks that the regime ruling Iran has been changed following the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Only Wednesday morning, Trump posted that Iran has “gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change!”

But Hegseth seemed to acknowledge in the press conference that he would like for the Iranian people to still rise up, in effect confirming that the ruling military and religious apparatus that controls Iran hasn’t changed at all. As the new, very shaky two-week ceasefire takes hold and negotiations between Iran and the U.S. begin in Pakistan, it will be interesting to see how the White House deals with Iran’s new rulers. Will it treat with them in good faith or blow up the chances for peace and take hostile action?