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NBC News
Donald Trump said the US has attacked Iran's three biggest nuclear facilities, in "spectacular military success" - but we shouldn't be worried, according to JD Vance, whose reasoning is being mocked on social media.
In a Sunday interview with NBC News' Meet the Press, the vice president insisted to host Kristen Welker that the US is “not at war” with Iran but rather with its nuclear weapons program.
But given that Trump had previously pledged at his January inauguration that his "proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and a unifier," this latest move doesn't exactly fit this narrative nor his "Make America Great Again" domestic-focussed agenda, as Americans question why their country is getting involved in a foreign conflict once again.
Vance addressed the concerns of Americans in his interview, where he decidedly distinguished Trump's latest attack on Iran from the actions of "dumb" past presidents, like George W Bush’s War on Terror and other Democratic presidents like Joe Biden and Barack Obama (without mentioning them by name).
"I certainly empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East," said Vance.
"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. So this is not going to be some long, drawn-out thing."
He added, "We’ve gone in, we’ve done the job of setting their nuclear program back, we’re going to now work to permanently dismantle that nuclear program over the coming years, and that is what the president has set out to do."
The "dumb" past president's defence didn't go down too well on social media, as people couldn't quite believe Vance actually said this, with them calling it "the dumbest argument," "laughable," and "insane behavior from a vice president."
"I thought this was a tongue in cheek paraphrase but no this is what he says," one person said.
The News Agents podcast host Jon Sopel wrote: "This is a difficult sell in trying to say why a Trump entanglement is different from a Bush(41 and 43)/Obama/Clinton/Biden one. It is still entanglement, something Trump promised wouldn’t happen."
"This is one the dumbest arguments I have heard any top US official make. Embarrassing," posted former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.
"I didn’t think this was real until I saw the clip," writer Molly Jong-Fast noted.
American former Marine fighter pilot, Amy McGrath responded: "This is laughable on so many levels."
"This is insane behavior from a vice president. This administration has lost all amount of decency," someone else commented.
Another person added, "Insulting past US presidents to justify your total hypocrisy. Cool!"
"Oh my God, 2028 is gonna be a nightmare for him," one X, formerly Twitter, user reacted.
A second person shared: "'Back then' my man guess who was president for four of those years."
Elsewhere, Trump branded ‘hypocrite’ for bombing Iran thanks to this 2013 social media post, and Trump's comments about Iran from 2011 have aged like milk.
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