US Vice President JD Vance walks with US Representative Jen Kiggans, Republican from Virginia, following an event marking 250 years of the American military at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on July 1, 2026. KEN CEDENO/Pool via REUTERS
Vice President JD Vance inadvertently revealed sensitive strategic calculations by disclosing President Donald Trump instructed Iran peace negotiators to "use the [memorandum of understanding] to refill the world's oil economy, refill some stocks and then to see where the hand is."
Writing for Salon, political analyst Heather Digby Parton interpreted this as evidence the administration is deliberately stalling negotiations to lower gas prices before potentially restarting conflict.
Parton attributes Vance's blunder to a culture of unfiltered communication cascading from Trump, who has long struggled with impulse control.
She notes, during Trump's first term, officials like former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis attempted to contain his worst impulses, but those guardrails have eroded.
Now in his second term, "He [Trump] is impervious to criticism now because he literally believes he can do no wrong, and there are tens of millions of people who believe that too," she warned.
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