JD Vance has ‘repeatedly questioned’ if Pentagon is giving Trump the full picture of Iran war: report

Vice President JD Vance has “repeatedly questioned” whether the Pentagon is giving President Donald Trump accurate information about the Iran war, according to a report.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine have both characterized the U.S. military’s performance in the eight-week-old conflict in glowing terms, insisting that American weapons stockpiles remain high and that damage to Iran’s air force, navy and defensive infrastructure has been severe.

However, The Atlantic reports that Vance has privately questioned the reality of those claims, asking whether the rosy portrayal of the war being presented to Trump is really the truth, citing advisers to the vice president.

He has also reportedly expressed concerns about the availability of particular missile systems in discussions with the president, fearful that a shortage of munitions reserves would have consequences for potential future run-ins with China, North Korea, or Russia.

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Vance “has presented his concerns as his own rather than accusing Hegseth or Caine of misleading the president,” the magazine writes.

“Vance is trying, the advisers suggested, to avoid making this personal, or to create divisions in Trump’s war cabinet. Some of Vance’s confidantes, however, believe that Hegseth’s portrayal has been so positive as to be misleading.”

Trump officials quoted suggest that Hegseth’s combative approach to press conferences and reliably upbeat messaging are designed to appeal to the president personally, noting that his briefings typically take place at 8 a.m., when Trump is known to tune into Fox News.

“Pete’s TV experience has made him really skilled at knowing how to talk to Trump, how Trump thinks,” one person told The Atlantic.

Despite Hegseth’s claims that the Iranian military has been decimated and its airspace is in the “complete control” of the U.S., internal intelligence assessments reportedly paint a different picture.

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They indicate that Tehran retains two-thirds of its air force, the majority of its missile-launching capabilities, and most of its small boats used in laying mines and harassing traffic along the Strait of Hormuz, which has stalled maritime commerce and ramped up the economic pressure on the aggressor.

Meanwhile, the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank has said that its own assessments indicate that the U.S. has already burned through more than half of its supplies of four key munitions.

Defense Department spokesman Sean Parnell responded to the story by stating that Hegseth and other Pentagon leaders “consistently provide the president with the complete, unvarnished picture.”

A White House official added that Vance “asks a lot of probing questions about our strategic planning, as do all of the members of the president’s national security team.”

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It was reported earlier this month that the vice president was one of the cabinet members who spoke out against Operation Epic Fury before its commencement on February 28, before pledging his support to Trump, even as he reiterated his opinion that the war was a bad idea that would lead to mass casualties and regional chaos.

Despite being against the war from the start – and “forever war” commitments more generally after his own experiences in Iraq – Vance has reportedly come to believe that his political future hangs on the outcome of the Iran conflict.

He was dispatched by Trump to lead the unsuccessful first round of peace talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, earlier this month and almost jetted out for a second round this week before they were called off.

Trump joked at the White House before Vance’s arrival for the first set of negotiations: “If [a deal] doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance. And if it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”

The Atlantic upset the Trump administration last week by publishing a damning profile of FBI Director Kash Patel, accusing him of routinely drinking to excess, an allegation the subject angrily denied, launching a $250 million defamation lawsuit in response.

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