Vice President J.D. Vance accused what he described as a ‘well-funded influence campaign’ of attempting to undermine the Trump administration’s negotiations with Iran, claiming some of the criticism directed at him stems from individuals allegedly tied to an Israeli-backed public relations effort.
J.D. Vance calls out influence campaign
Speaking during an interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Vance pointed to a recent Time magazine report about former Donald Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale and his company, Clock Tower X. The report alleged the firm is being paid by Israel to conduct an influence campaign in the United States, citing filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
“But I definitely think you have seen this very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation and try to derail the deal. And there was, again, there’s this Time article that came out yesterday — a friend sent it to me — it’s worth reading because it lists a bunch of people who have quite literally been paid by a former Trump campaign person, who was himself paid by certain elements within the Israeli government,” Vance told Rogan.
According to the Time report referenced by Vance, Parscale, who briefly managed Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, and his company were retained by Israel to carry out an influence campaign.
Fueling political attacks
Vance argued that the campaign has fueled attacks against him over his role in pursuing negotiations with Iran.
“And those people are attacking me viciously for quite literally trying to accomplish the negotiation objective that the president set for the country,” Vance said.
Rogan then asked, “So what is their position? They’re attacking you. How?”
“Oh, it’s social media posts. It’s, you know, they’re leaking to reporters. They are attacking, obsessively saying that we should not be negotiating with Iran, that we should just keep the military campaign going indefinitely. And that is their explicit position,” Vance claimed. “And [they’re] coming after me, saying that, you know, people have come after me and said that I’m influenced by Qatar, that I am influenced by foreign governments, that I take my marching orders from Tucker Carlson — there’s just so much bulls*** out there, when what I’m actually trying to do is accomplish what the president of the United States told me to accomplish, which is a settlement of this that accomplishes our objectives: Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon and we have the free flow of oil and gas.”
Influencing U.S. policy
Vance said he does not object to foreign governments attempting to influence U.S. policy but drew a distinction between those efforts and the actions of American officials.
“And I should be clear — and, you know, I don’t actually mind that certain elements of the Israeli government want to criticize the deal or have disagreements about the deal. I don’t even mind an effort to try to influence — you know, foreign governments try to influence the United States all the time. Israel does it, other countries do it — it’s just sort of the nature of the beast. What bothers me is actually when Americans — meaning American leadership — allow that influence to affect their judgment and to affect what they are advocating for. That’s what really bothers me,” he said.
Vance concluded by saying he would continue pursuing what he views as U.S. interests despite outside pressure.
“People are always going to try to influence the United States of America, whether they’re allies of ours or whether they are enemies of ours,” he said. “But, again, when I open up the pages of Time magazine and I see that there’s a literal foreign influence campaign being funded to tank the very deal that I was pursuing — and, oh, by the way, many of the people who were receiving that money were actually attacking me in completely dishonest ways — my response to that is, well, go to hell. I’m going to do what I have to do for the American people. I represent Americans first.”
