‘This Is Necessary’: Trump Throws JD Vance Under the Bus Over Iran — But Vance Might Be Sitting on the One Thing That Could Flip This on Trump as Some Conservatives Dare Him to Go There
President Donald Trump has built a reputation for claiming the spotlight when things go right and shifting the blame when they don’t. It’s a pattern that shapes how he deals with allies, rivals, and even members of his own Cabinet. That instinct came back into view this week, when his off-the-cuff remarks about Vice President JD Vance didn’t fully register as a joke.
With the Iran war approaching its sixth week, Trump leaned into the same posture he has used time and again to acquit himself — but this time, it was Vance standing in front of the bus.
At an Easter lunch, Trump turned to Vance in front of guests and cameras, pressing him for an update on the Iran negotiations. “He’s working on the deal, right? How’s that moving? Is it OK? The big deal?” Trump asked, distancing himself. Vance, measured as ever, replied, “It’s going good, sir,” before adding, “We’re gonna brief you, too.”
But Trump didn’t let it sit there. “So, if it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance. If it does happen, I’m taking full credit,” he said, drawing laughter from the room. Trump then asserted his conviction that Iran was on the ropes: “No, I think it’ll be, uh, I think it has to happen. I think they’re desperate.”
The moment captured a deeper tension within the administration: as the Iran conflict turns into a political liability, Trump is once again shifting accountability, while Vance — who has long been wary of foreign interventions — sits in a position where loyalty and his own political convictions are starting to pull in opposite directions.
Trump’s confidence continues to clash with the reality on the ground, especially after a U.S. fighter jet was shot down over Iran on Friday, days after the president claimed Tehran’s air defenses had been effectively wiped out.
U.S. intelligence says Iran does not view itself as cornered and is not currently willing to make major concessions, undercutting Trump’s claim that pressure alone will force a deal.
And the administration has yet to outline a clear plan for stabilizing the region or reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
At the same time, a quiet but growing chorus on the right is floating a once-unthinkable idea: that Vance holds the power, through Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, to end Trump’s presidency if he chooses to act — though there’s little sign he would actually take that step.
Such an unprecedented though unlikely move would require approval from a majority of the Cabinet and two thirds of the Congress if Trump opposed it.
Online, critics pointed to Trump’s pattern of blaming others for his own inadequacies. “Why should anyone be surprised? This is what he always does, he will never own up to a mistake!”
Others went further, casting Vance’s role as something Trump had planned from the start.
“Like I said the only reason why he picked Vance as his running mate was because he’s stupid and he planned to throw him under the bus!”
Trump’s defenders pushed back in the same thread, dismissing the entire episode as overblown. “Don’t believe it, just another article trying to stir up trouble within Trumps administration,” one person wrote.
Another added, “Oh geez, it was a joke, if you don’t know his sense of humor by now… you must be a Dem.”
As accusations of “fake news” spread, one user shot back: “Fake? He always does blames someone else for his mistakes!!!!”
One observer connected the dots on Trump: “This happens to anyone who aligns themselves with or does business with this guy. They cheer him on when he is stepping on people but always shocked when it happens to them.”
Vance, a Marine veteran of the Iraq War, has consistently argued for restraint in foreign wars, even while acknowledging that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon. Trump himself has hinted at that gap, saying Vance was “philosophically a little bit different than me” and “maybe less enthusiastic about going.”
When pressed repeatedly by reporters about concerns over the war, Vance sidestepped, warning against airing internal discussions and accusing journalists of “trying to drive a wedge between members of the administration, between me and the president.”
Polling suggests the party itself is split, with roughly half of Republicans backing the current military approach while others say it has either gone too far or not far enough.
Still, the most explosive pressure isn’t coming from voters — it’s coming from within Trump’s own orbit.
Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb delivered a blunt assessment, calling the president “clearly insane” and openly questioning why the Cabinet has not acted to rein him in.
“Given the fact that the Cabinet will not invoke the 25th Amendment for a man who is clearly insane — this war highlights that and these screeds that come out nightly, you know, at 2 a.m. or 4 a.m. — it highlights the level of his insanity and depravity,” Cobb said, according to Newsweek.
He didn’t stop there. “I think he’s gone,” Cobb added, pointing to Trump’s handling of the war and his belief that force alone would bring Iran to heel.
“He believed that merely by exercising his power and puffing out his chest that Iran would surrender, that the regime would step down,” Cobb said. “And now his position to the world is, hey, we broke it. I don’t care. You fix it.”
Cobb isn’t alone. Scott McConnell, a founding editor of The American Conservative and a longtime voice on the right, openly floated a similar scenario, however unlikely.
“My advice to Vance: announce your support of a 25th Amendment transition,” McConnell wrote on X. “Say [Senator] Chris Murphy or similar will be veep. Announce you will NOT be a candidate in 2028. Use your position, access to the media to explain why this is necessary. Don’t resign,” he added.
The comments did not come out of nowhere.
McConnell, who said he had voted for Trump three times, made clear his break with the president was tied directly to the escalating conflict with Iran.
“So so ashamed and embarrassed to have voted three times for this person,” he wrote, adding bluntly when pressed on what changed: “Iran war.”
His remarks stand out not just for their bluntness, but for how far they go — moving beyond criticism and into openly outlining a path for Vance to step in, a line that, until recently, most Trump allies had been unwilling to even hint at publicly.
Under the 25th Amendment, the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet can declare a president unable to carry out the duties of the office, at which point the vice president assumes power as acting president.