AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File
The Wall Street Journal made a point of calling Vice President JD Vance out for trying to “block” President Donald Trump’s foreign policy in an editorial published on Monday night.
Earlier that day, The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg revealed he had been accidentally added to a group chat in which the Principals Committee — the heads of the top American national security agencies — discussed Trump’s intention to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this month.
While National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth both defended Trump’s decision, Vance criticized it in relatively harsh terms.
Thus, the Journal‘s sub-headline for its editorial: “Waltz and Hegseth backed the boss and U.S. leadership. Not so Vance.”
“The news is that the characters played to their public type. National-security adviser Mike Waltz was a voice for U.S. leadership — and for carrying out the President’s policy. Vice President JD Vance was a voice for U.S. retreat even when Mr. Trump directed otherwise,” submitted the Journal.
It continued:
“As I heard it, the president was clear: green light” to take on the Houthis, wrote “S M,” presumed to be Mr. Trump’s senior aide Stephen Miller. Why should Tehran’s proxy get away, as under Joe Biden, with shooting at Navy ships and aircraft and blocking critical waterways for everyone but Iran, Russia and China?
The key exchange began March 14, a day before U.S. strikes on Yemen, when the Signal user “Michael Waltz” wrote, “Team, you should have a statement of conclusions with taskings per the Presidents guidance.” But not all preferred to take that guidance. “I think we are making a mistake,” the user “JD Vance” replied. “3 percent of US trade runs through the suez,” the canal blocked by Houthi fire, while “40 percent of European trade does.”
He continued, “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.” In sum, “there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
The center-right newspaper went on to praise Hegseth for pushing back on Vance, who it argued “finally conceded to reality.”
“The President’s policy carried the day,” it concluded. “Mr. Trump now knows which of his deputies tried to block it and which tried to carry it out.”