Leavitt Serves Up Word Salad Over Trump and Vance’s Iran Contradiction

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed, despite evidence to the contrary, that President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance agree on the value of pursuing negotiations with Iran.

In a Thursday press conference, Elina Shirazi of The Daily Mail noted contradictory statements made recently by the first- and second-in-command on whether U.S.-Iranian talks are worthwhile.

Namely, Trump said the following last week of Iranians and their leadership: “They’re scum. They’re sick people.… They’re vicious, violent people.… It’s just a waste of time dealing with them. They’re liars.… There’s something wrong with them. They’re cuckoo.”

But Vance, appearing on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience that aired Wednesday, said, “I’m very frustrated by the Americans, and frankly by people in other countries, who are like, ‘You cannot negotiate with the Iranians.’” Going further, he called the sentiment “fundamentally idiotic” and said those who espouse it “do not actually have a solution”—apparently unaware that he was describing a belief expressed by his boss just days earlier.

“Respectfully, I do think you’re taking comments from different times throughout this conflict,” Leavitt told Shirazi, adding, “I can tell you the president and vice president are on the exact same page about where we are right now in this conflict.”
.@DailyMailUS’s @ElinaShirazi: “If I can read two comments, one made by President Trump and one made by the Vice President on Iran. President Trump recently said, ‘As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them. They’re liars. There’s something wrong with… pic.twitter.com/wgcs2IwoQ8
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 16, 2026
She also argued that the hot-and-cold negotiations were a sign of how successful U.S. attacks on Iran have been. ...