President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to portray a united front as the commander in chief considers military action against Iran in response to the regime’s deadly crackdown on protests.
“It’s true that we are looking to be perceived as unified, but it’s also true that the president’s foreign policy team is unified,” a Republican strategist close to the White House told the Washington Examiner.
The administration has disputed a report from the Wall Street Journal this week that the likes of Vice President JD Vance are imploring Trump to first attempt diplomacy with Iran before taking military action in response to Tehran’s killing potentially thousands of protesters who have taken to the streets during the past two-plus weeks.
“The Wall Street Journal’s reporting is not accurate,” William Martin, Vance’s communications director, said on social media. “Vice President Vance and Secretary of State [Marco] Rubio together are presenting a suite of options to the president, ranging from a diplomatic approach to military actions. They are presenting those options without bias or favor.”
A source familiar with the situation told the Washington Examiner Vance, Rubio, and other White House National Security Council officials even met last Friday to start preparing those options for Trump’s consideration “in the coming days.”
Vance, too, led an NSC meeting at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, though Trump did not attend in person because of his trip to Detroit.
The pushback comes after the administration similarly disputed speculation Vance was not at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private resort in Palm Beach, Florida, for this month’s capture of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in Caracas because of his concerns regarding the president’s decision to approve Operation Absolute Resolve.
In addition, there were reports that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had been purposely excluded from Trump’s Venezuela decision-making process because of her anticipated opposition to the mission, with White House aides nicknaming her “Do Not Invite,” an alternative abbreviation for DNI.
“So, I’ve heard a couple of things. One, that I was kept out of the planning for the Venezuela operation, that’s false, and another that Tulsi was kept out of the planning for Venezuela operations. That’s completely false,” Vance said last week. “Look, we’re all part of the same team. And one of the things that is really amazing about that operation is that we kept it very tight to the senior cabinet level officials and related officials in our government, and we kept this operation secret for a very long time.
“Every other day I’m chairing the meeting that we do on this among White House principals to talk about next steps to try to ensure that Venezuela is stable,” the vice president added. “And as the president has directed us to do, to ensure that the new Venezuelan government actually listens to the United States and does what the United States needs it to do under our country’s best interest.”
For Republican strategist John Feehery, Vance is “loyal” to Trump and “it is very important for him to be seen internally as a team player.”
“That being said, he is clearly telling everybody that where he stands physically is where he stands philosophically,” Feehery told the Washington Examiner. “Venezuela is the Rubio show and Vance has mostly made himself scarce on that issue. On Iran, he is right to be a voice of reason on that conversation. Bombing the Iranians won’t help the protesters.”
In comparison, when asked what he made of the Wall Street Journal report and the intra-administration dynamics before the 2028 presidential election, fellow Republican strategist Alex Bruesewitz simply responded: “The Wall Street Journal is fake news trash.”
A little more than a week after Trump previewed the prospect of the U.S. “running” Venezuela, his policy regarding Iran could expose divisions among Republicans again.
For example, although Trump has alluded to the likelihood of military action, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said on Tuesday that his preference is to support protesters and regime change without it.
Trump, for his part, told a crowd Tuesday in Detroit: “To all Iranian patriots, keep protesting, take over your institutions if possible, and save the name of the killers and the abusers that are abusing you. I’ve canceled all meetings with the Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters stops, and all I say to them is, help is on its way.”
To that end, Foundation for Defense of Democracies Iran program senior director Behnam Ben Taleblu did not want to talk about the politics of Trump’s policy when asked by the Washington Examiner but did say “there’s an intellectual civil war between isolationism and internationalism,” particularly “on the American right.”
Taleblu’s colleague at FDD, Rich Goldberg, a senior adviser at the conservative-leaning think tank, added regarding Iran, “In the end you want to empower and enable the people in the streets to take over critical pillars of the regime, and we have relatively low-risk options to do that without putting American forces in harm’s way.”
American Enterprise Institute fellow Brian Carter told the Washington Examiner military action against Iran could include “strikes against [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] Ground Forces bases and the headquarters of key internal security forces” because that could “cause the Iranian security apparatus to struggle to respond rapidly to protests and stretch already strained Iranian bandwidth.”
Regardless of Republican disagreement concerning Iran, many conservatives on Tuesday welcomed Trump’s announcement he is no longer engaging with the Iranian regime until the cessation of its attacks against the protesters.
“Negotiating with this regime at this time would be throwing [supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] a raft,” Hudson Institute senior fellow Rebeccah Heinrichs told the Washington Examiner. “It’s unthinkable, from a purely U.S. interests perspective, there’s no reason to do it, and every reason to lend support to the Iranian people.”
Elliott Abrams, Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow and Vandenberg Coalition chairman, said: “In truth the regime has nothing we want except their own disappearance.
“They have proved that they will not give up their nuclear and missile programs, and they cheat on every agreement they sign anyway.”
Abrams, Trump’s former special representative to Iran, continued: “In these protests, momentum is critical – and any statements or actions by the president help maintain the morale and momentum of the protesters.”
Vance and Rubio have been under a political microscope before the 2028 Republican presidential primary because they are the race’s indisputable front-runners.
At the same time, Vance already has the endorsement of the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA organization and Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), who himself was thought to be a presidential hopeful.
Even Rubio has told confidants he would defer to Vance should the vice president launch a presidential campaign.
Vance dominates early, hypothetical Republican primary polls, averaging 49% support to Donald Trump Jr.’s 11%, and Rubio and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) 9% apiece, according to RealClearPolitics.
Trump acknowledged last August Vance was “most likely” his heir apparent, saying, “It’s too early, obviously, to talk about it but certainly he’s doing a great job, and he would be probably favored at this point.”
Simultaneously, Trump has praised Rubio, encouraging the pair to run as a ticket because, “If they formed a group, it would be unstoppable.”
