Martin Schram: Peeved at his veep?

To tell you the truth, America’s 47th president was apparently way more than just peeved at his vice president after the first round of the Iran war ceasefire talks suddenly collapsed in Islamabad, Pakistan.

And you could tell President Donald Trump was really not pleased because he didn’t even bother to conceal it from us the way his modern-era POTUS predecessors almost always did. (With the exception of America’s rather volcanic 45th president, of course, who’s veep, Mike Pence, proved unwilling to become Trump’s get out of jail free card.)

Today, Trump seems clearly relieved that the talks apparently will soon resume. But we can all benefit by looking back at what went on – and may still be going on – between Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Hopefully we can still teach ourselves as we resolve to learn from our mistakes.

The tipoff that something was going on between Trump and Vance came last Tuesday. Trump phoned the New York Post’s correspondent at the U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad – not once but twice. He went out of his way to make clear that he was not pleased with a nuclear fuel enrichment program offer his chief negotiator, Vance, had made to Iran just before the all-nighter weekend talks collapsed.

First he called and spoke optimistically, but in a general sense, saying there would be more talks later. Then, just a half hour later, Trump called back and tipped the reporter to not just one, but two scoops: First, Trump advised the correspondent to stay in Pakistan because something has happened and the talks would likely restart in a couple of days. Second, Trump also wanted to make sure the reporter knew something presidents rarely say out loud about their veeps: He said he was not pleased to hear that Vance had offered Iran a provision that set a 20-year limit on Iran’s nuclear fuel enrichment program – instead of a provision that banned forever Iran’s enrichment of nuclear fuel.

“I’ve been saying they can’t have nuclear weapons, so I don’t like the 20 years,” the president said, according to an article by the New York Post’s Caitlin Doornbos. Trump said if the agreement provides that Iran might be permitted to restart its nuclear program after 20 years, Iran could claim the agreement was a “win,” adding: “I don’t want them to feel like they have a win.”

Trump added that because Iran had moved to prevent Gulf state oil tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz to ship fuel to Asia and Europe, he had ordered the U.S. Navy to also prevent Iran from sailing its own tankers through the strait to the rest of the world. The devastating economic result, he said, would cause Iran to commit it will “never have a nuclear weapon.”

Time out. At this point, you may well be wondering: How, in any global negotiations, could an American vice president formally table a major nuclear weapons proposal without the president even approving, let alone knowing, about it? I wondered the same thing. And truth to tell, it’s the nature of the Trump presidencies that we still don’t know. Because in Trump’s presidencies, chaos is the order of the day.

Let me explain by rewinding our news machines back just a week or so. On Wednesday, April 8, Vance, who had been politicking in Budapest to help Trump urge the reelection of Hungary’s soon to be massively defeated far-right prime minister, Viktor Orban, when a reporter asked him something about the U.S.-Iran ceasefire. Vance seemed to have no idea what he ought to say, so he just told the truth: “I haven’t been involved in that because I’ve been doing stuff in Hungary.”

Vance probably had no idea that three days later, he’d be sitting in a fancy room in Islamabad, staring at Iranians he may not have known much about, running the show to help America’s president find an offramp (or maybe an off-waterway) to get America out of the war of choice his president had started. Vance also had the distinction of being the member of Trump’s inner circle who had been most clear and outspoken in advising against this war.

Trump had also been cautioned by his experts about all he needed to hear. Especially: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, had counseled that if the U.S. and Israel kill Iran’s top rulers and leaders, and massively destroy Iran’s military and weapons, Tehran’s regime must be expected to try to shut down the Strait of Hormuz.

But Trump concluded what he preferred to hear and wanted to believe – that Iran would never do that because it needs its tankers and ships to sail through the strait to economically survive. So, Trump reportedly told his advisers Iran’s revolutionary theocracy would probably capitulate– not realizing Iran could selectively allow its own ships and other friendlies safe passage through an unmined section of the strait.

What’s also been happening so far is that Trump has picked a long-running fight with Pope Leo XIV, posted an image depicting himself as Jesus, and another depicting a caring Jesus draping an arm around a grateful Trump’s shoulder.

But wait. Let’s go back to that offer Vance indeed made at the Islamabad talks. Was Vance so out of touch on this issue that he didn’t realize it was contrary to what Trump wanted? Well, we don’t know for sure. Vance has said he was in contact with Trump repeatedly throughout the Islamabad (see also: too bad) moments. Did he not mention this major provision to Trump? Did Trump not mention it to Vance? Did supreme son-in-law Jared Kushner or Steve Witkoff, the U.S. negotiators in all the other talks, sit there and never mention it?

Where were Trump’s secretary of state and national security adviser, top minds who might have offered wise counsel to Vance in Islamabad? Well, they are both Marco Rubio – and Rubio was with the president and otherwise occupied during that momentous moment. They were in Miami, sitting in cage-front seats, watching an Ultimate Fight Championship.

Maybe indeed everybody had discussed it. Maybe Trump and everyone knew Vance would be proposing it in Islamabad. If so, maybe that means our unhinged POTUS, who has recently been up all night, posting rants and raves, has just been telling us one more untruth.

If so, hopefully our president is feeling happier and better now. After all, our ever-resilient president may simply have built himself a most convenient offramp for his militarily successful, but misbegotten, war of choice.

If anything else goes wrong, just veer off, blame it on Vance, and keep on rollin’ along.

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