President Donald Trump joked that Vice President JD Vance would shoulder the blame if his Iran peace deal doesn't work out, but Republicans are already projecting their dissatisfaction with the agreement onto him.

The 80-year-old president returned to Washington, D.C., after meeting with world leaders in France and signing the memorandum of understanding at the Palace of Versailles, and Politico's Playbook reported that oil industry insiders and GOP lawmakers aren't happy with the terms.

"Plenty of Republican lawmakers are also uncomfortable, in private at least," Playbook reported. "The economic support being offered to the regime is very unpopular, and few will have enjoyed watching Trump defend Iran’s right to ballistic missiles on live TV. (Marco Rubio said depleting missile stocks was a core aim of the war, remember.)"

"One Hill Republican told POLITICO’s Inside Congress the deal represents 'total surrender,”' the report added. "But in public, most Republicans are biting their tongues, ultimately relieved the war is ending with more than four months before the midterms."

Trump jokingly told reporters that he was setting up his 41-year-old vice president as the scapegoat, just in case the deal goes sideways.

“If it works out, I’m going to take the credit. If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD,” Trump said Wednesday at a press conference at the G7 summit near Geneva. “You better be careful, JD. He’s going to turn his plane around and get the hell out of here.”

That already seems to be happening behind the scenes, according to Playbook.

"Republicans reluctant to criticize Trump directly are seeking to pin the blame on VP JD Vance instead," the outlet reported. "But here’s the thing: Vance world is relaxed at the prospect of this being framed as the 'Vance Peace Deal,' Dasha [Burns] reports on today’s Playbook Podcast, given the broad unpopularity of the war."

White House officials seemed to agree that cutting a deal with Iran was the best political move available, and Vance's willingness to be the frontman for that reflects that view.

"Without question, the biggest potential political liability Vance had was the unpopularity of the war in Iran,” said one person close to the White House. “So it’s fascinating to watch his biggest enemies in the GOP unwittingly inoculate him from that liability by branding him as responsible for the peace deal.”

"He now gets to do a media tour defending the president — AKA the kingmaker of our party — from their idiotic criticism of the deal,” the person added. “While even his critics would acknowledge that the vice president is a smart guy, sometimes what really matters in politics is how stupid your enemies are.”

President Donald Trump has a habit of punishing Republicans who tell him no, and his standoff with his party's Senate majority leader may cost him the most.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, has delivered a string of unwelcome answers to the president — rejecting Trump's demands to fire the Senate parliamentarian, kill the legislative filibuster, and pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, a voter ID bill that lacks the votes to move forward.

On Wednesday, Trump escalated, posting on Truth Social at 3:54 a.m. to torpedo a bipartisan deal Thune had spent weeks building — linking reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to the voter ID bill that has already failed repeatedly in the chamber.

"Good question," Thune told reporters when asked why Trump would pull the rug out from under him.

Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority, but the filibuster requires 60 votes to advance most legislation — a threshold Trump's voter ID push has never come close to clearing. One Republican senator warned that moving against Thune publicly "would trigger a revolt from members" — the kind of rupture that could cost Trump Senate votes he cannot spare heading into the midterms.

Trump has been down this road before. He ousted five Indiana state senators who defied his redistricting push and endorsed primary challengers against Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana after they broke with him.

He also declared Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina "a loser" after Tillis threatened to oppose his next attorney general pick.

"The problem is the president doesn't like hearing that when it frustrates what he wants to do," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said of Thune's approach.

It would not be the first time Trump trained his fire on Thune. In December 2020, after Thune said efforts to reject the election results "would go down like a shot dog," Trump branded him a "RINO" and threatened, "He will be primaried in 2022, political career over!!!" Thune won reelection that year with nearly 70% of the vote.

For now, Trump has kept his frustration private. But Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) offered a blunt assessment of where things stand on the voter ID bill at the center of the standoff.

"I mean, I want a Porsche for my birthday," Kennedy said. "I'm not going to get it."

A candid admission from a high-ranking NBCUniversal executive that Comcast's multi-million dollar contribution to President Trump's ballroom project was merely the "cost of doing business" sparked outrage among journalists at a company retreat this week.

According to media watchdog Status, NBC-owned stations' news directors and NBC News investigative reporters gathered for a network training day ahead of the 2026 Investigative Reporters & Editors conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

During that gathering, Anzio Williams, executive vice president of talent, strategic initiatives and team impact at NBCU Local, defended Comcast's seven-figure bankrolling of Trump's ballroom as a necessary price "to facilitate the company’s ability to continue producing journalism," Natalie Korach wrote.

According to attendees, Williams said: "If we have to name a ride after him at Universal Studios, that's fine too, as long as it means they leave us alone."

The comment landed like a bombshell, Status is reporting. Journalists in the room immediately expressed displeasure to NBC management, describing the remarks as a "gut punch," according to one attendee.

In a statement to Status, Williams disputed the characterization of his remarks, claiming: "I was lauding our company for giving us journalistic independence and not interfering in our work. I noted our parent company has a lot of interests and followed up to share that they make donations across the spectrum, but our journalism is never influenced or impacted."

An NBCUniversal spokesperson declined to back up the explanation.

The episode reignited controversy over Comcast's decision to bankroll Trump's ballroom project—a decision that sparked fury when first revealed. Several MS NOW hosts publicly rebuked their own corporate parent on air before the network was spun out of Comcast's portfolio as part of Versant, Status is reporting.

"Those public-facing companies should know there's a cost in terms of their reputation with the American people," Rachel Maddow said at the time, with Lawrence O'Donnell adding: "Comcast is committed to nothing but Comcast."