Appearing on Sunday morning news shows, top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration confirmed the plan for the next round of diplomatic talks in Islamabad, Pakistan: Vice President JD Vance, whom Trump had tapped earlier this month to lead the U.S. negotiations, would be there again.
Even as United Nations Ambassador Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright were confirming Vance’s participation, however, Trump was telling the networks the opposite. Vance wouldn’t be traveling to Pakistan because of security concerns, the president told journalists from ABC and MS NOW in separate phone calls Sunday morning.
Trump’s remarks set off a scramble within the White House as officials worked to correct the commander in chief’s claims, telling reporters privately that Vance would, in fact, be leading the delegation to Islamabad.
The contradictory remarks highlighted a continuing challenge for the administration: On information as basic as who would attend high-stakes peace talks, as well as on broader questions of whether Iran has agreed to terms for a deal, Trump’s oscillating claims have led to confusion and required clean-up by his staff.
In response to a request for comment, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the “diplomatic conversations are very fluid and evolving in real-time,” and touted the news media’s “unfettered access to the President of the United States.” She accused The Washington Post of “attacking the President for answering reporters’ questions when they call.”
“Vice President JD Vance is doing a great job leading the US delegation in these negotiations, and the President appreciates all of his work to help ensure that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon,” Kelly said in a statement.
Trump has offered shifting accounts of the status of talks with Iran and of the Strait of Hormuz that have been contradicted by the Iranians and sometimes himself.
He has contradicted himself, as well his energy secretary, about prospects for lower gasoline prices.
And he has offered conflicting accounts on one of the key issues in the conflict — the fate of Iran’s highly enriched uranium.
Ahead of the first meeting in Pakistan on April 11, Trump said the U.S. and Iran would work together to remove the enriched uranium, which could be used to make a nuclear bomb.
“Many of the 15 points have already been been agreed to,” he said on social media of the U.S.’s demands.
Leavitt, asked on April 8 whether Iran had indicated it would turn over the uranium, answered, “They have. Yes.”
But the two sides left Islamabad without a deal. At the meeting, Vance proposed a 20-year moratorium on Iran’s enrichment program, which Trump later rejected. “I don’t like the 20 years,” he told the New York Post on April 14.
Late last week, Trump repeated that the Iranians had agreed that the U.S. would remove Iran’s enriched uranium, which he termed “nuclear ‘dust.’”
Trump’s statements about whether Vance was going to the talks were important because, as the administration’s foremost skeptic about the war, the vice president has been widely seen as a more effective negotiator for the Iranians than special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Negotiations led on the U.S. side by Vance earlier this month “got very friendly” between the two sides, Trump said earlier this month, despite the 20-hour negotiations failing to result in a deal.
Mistaken information coming from the president about the vice president’s travel plans continued on Monday, when the New York Post reported he said during a morning phone call that Vance, Witkoff and Kushner were already on their way to Islamabad, and would be in Pakistan by Monday night, local time.
Roughly an hour and a half after the New York Post’s report that Vance was close to landing in Islamabad, his motorcade turned up at the White House.
Administration officials again hustled to correct what Trump had said, telling reporters on the condition of anonymity that the vice president would likely leave on Tuesday.
Trump gave similar mixed signals about the vice president earlier this month, ahead of the first round of talks in Islamabad, shortly after tapping him to lead those negotiations. At that time, Trump told the New York Post that Vance might not travel to the talks due to security concerns; several hours later, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that Vance would travel as the lead negotiator.
Several administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter, noted the evolving nature of plans for the talks, which involve a wide range of logistical concerns for the U.S. delegation and are dependent on the Iranian side’s plans and conditions. That has resulted in shifting travel plans and timelines, the officials said.
But Trump’s contradictory statements have gone beyond logistical matters. On Friday, Trump said the Strait of Hormuz was open and that negotiations “SHOULD GO VERY QUICKLY IN THAT MOST OF THE POINTS ARE ALREADY NEGOTIATED.”
He told Bloomberg negotiations would be quick because “most of the main points are finalized,” including “unlimited” suspension of Iran’s nuclear program.
He went on to claim Iran “has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again.” Yet on Saturday, Iran said it would close the waterway again because the U.S. was maintaining its naval blockade.
“Iran recently announced that they were closing the Strait, which is strange, because our BLOCKADE has already closed it,” he said on social media on Sunday. After saying Iran had already agreed to most terms, Trump again threatened to destroy the country’s civilian infrastructure if its government did not accept U.S. demands.
“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” he said. “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!”
Maria Bartiromo of Fox News said Monday morning that Trump told her on Sunday “a deal would be signed tonight.” On Monday afternoon, he denied there was any time pressure for a deal.
“I am under no pressure whatsoever, although, it will all happen, relatively quickly!” he said in a social media post that referenced the length of previous wars, including both World Wars and Vietnam.
He blamed Democrats and the media for conflicting accounts.
Trump has previously expressed frustration that news coverage had included responses to his claims from Iranian officials.
“Iran has long been known as a Master of Media Manipulation and Public Relations,” he posted on March 15. “They are Militarily ineffective and weak, but are really good at ‘feeding’ the very appreciative Fake News Media false information.”
Trump has also given the public mixed messages about gasoline prices, which have been elevated since the was disrupted global oil supply chains. On Monday, he said in an interview with the Hill that his energy secretary, Chris Wright, was “totally wrong” to say that prices would not drop to $3 a gallon until 2027. The president predicted that gas prices would come down “as soon as this ends.”
A week earlier, Trump had told Bartiromo that he hoped gas and oil costs would drop before the midterms, but that prices “should be around the same” in November and might be “a little bit higher.”
The average price of a gallon of gas on Monday was $4.04, according to AAA, up 87 cents from a year ago. Energy analysts and economists have warned that prices at the pump could remain high even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens, because prices at the pump typically descend much more slowly than they rise.
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