JD Vance under pressure to forge Iran ceasefire deal

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Apr 9, 2026

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Vice President JD Vance is under intense pressure to forge a durable Iran ceasefire deal when he leads high-stakes talks Saturday in Pakistan with top leaders of the Islamic regime.

The eyes of the world will be on Vance as he seeks to keep the guns quiet and get the oil flowing through the crucial Straits of Hormuz while squeezing enough concrete concessions from Tehran to please President Donald Trump and his MAGA allies.

It might be a tall order. If the talks falter or, even worse, if fighting resumes, Vance could quickly find himself in the crosshairs of critics within and outside of his mercurial boss’ inner circle.

Early signs are not encouraging.

The veep, who generally opposes U.S. entanglements overseas, was exposed this week as a key voice opposing Trump’s decision to launch the war alongside Israel, according to an account in The New York Times.

He apparently wasn’t involved in negotiating the murky eleventh-hour deal that averted Trump’s threat to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”

“The war with Iran is deeply unpopular, and has been from Day One. Apparently, Vance opposed it internally, so that’s a plus for him,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political analyst. “But in the end, as vice president, he owns Trump’s record.”

With the deal looking shaky in its first hours, Vance seemed to side with Iran when he said it was “understandable” that the Tehran regime believed the ceasefire was supposed to include Lebanon, even though Israel and the U.S. say that was never the case.

He added that he “found it fascinating” that Iran’s leaders say they still have the right to enrich uranium, a claim that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said is an unbreakable “red line” for Trump.

The vice president then made a bizarre analogy between Iran’s nuclear program and his relationship with his pregnant wife, second lady Usha Vance.

“I thought to myself, you know what? My wife has the right to skydive, but she doesn’t jump out of an airplane,” Vance told reporters. “Because she and I have an agreement that she’s not going to do that because I don’t want my wife jumping out of an airplane.”

The political fallout could be especially harsh because Vance is widely seen as the front-runner to succeed Trump as the Republican presidential standard bearer on the 2028 GOP White House ticket.

Vance’s top dog status could spur rivals in both parties to portray him as the face of an unpopular war that voters blame for rising inflation and the all-important price of gas at the pump.

Underlining the potential political peril, some right-wing supporters of Israel and Iran hawks have already suggested the ceasefire could be a mistake if it allows the Islamic regime to survive and regroup while effectively controlling the flow of oil through the Straits of Hormuz.

Notably, the American delegation for the talks with Iran includes Trump confidantes Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the nation’s top diplomat, is not expected to attend, an odd decision given that the talks could have a massive impact on U.S. relations with geopolitical allies and rivals alike.

Rubio is also a potential 2028 Republican presidential candidate, raising the possibility he wants to avoiding being associated with a war that has plenty of political downsides.

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