Vice President JD Vance found himself fielding pointed questions Tuesday during a live, virtual sit-down with the All-In podcast, as co-host Jason Calacanis pushed the vice president to answer for President Donald Trump’s decision to launch military action against Iran despite campaign promises to avoid foreign conflicts.
The interview, conducted during the podcast’s All-In Summit in Los Angeles, also saw Calacanis press Vance on the administration’s struggle to tame inflation, telling the vice president that the MAGA base was “extremely frustrated” over both issues.
“You promised us you wouldn’t start a foreign war, you promised us you wouldn’t start a foreign war in the Middle East specifically,” Calacanis told Vance. “And then, you promised you would get inflation under control. You haven’t been able to get inflation under control, still 3-4% this year. It’s not looking good.”
The host didn’t let up, telling Vance that voters who backed the ticket were furious about the war and demanding to know how the administration planned to resolve both flashpoints.
Vance pushed back on the framing, arguing that keeping America out of foreign entanglements was never meant to rule out military action entirely. He said Trump entered office committed to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and that goal doesn’t conflict with a broader desire to avoid getting bogged down overseas.
The vice president went on to defend the administration’s handling of the aftermath, noting that despite what he described as substantial destruction of Iran’s nuclear program and military, Iranian forces have continued firing on commercial shipping vessels even during ongoing peace negotiations. He argued Trump has taken the responsible path by working to keep global energy markets stable and ensuring the continued flow of oil and gas despite what he called Iranian terrorism.
Vance warned that the alternative—effectively telling the Middle East the U.S. would step back entirely—would trigger a worldwide energy crisis given Iran’s continued shipping attacks. He framed the administration’s approach as protecting American assets in the region while safeguarding global energy supplies.
The tense exchange comes two years after Trump declared at the Republican National Convention that his victory would end “the years of war, weakness, and chaos,” insisting “I don’t have wars.” He reiterated that pledge a month later at a rally, vowing “no more wars, no more disruptions” under a second term.
The podcast appearance also followed a notable moment from the previous day, when Trump phoned Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang live onstage at the same conference, launching into a broader rant dismissing concerns over artificial intelligence regulation—a subject that has dominated headlines for the president this week. Trump insisted the fears surrounding AI taking over amounted to nothing more than a “Hoax.”
On inflation, Vance conceded prices remain higher than he’d like but insisted the administration has made “a lot of progress” since taking over from former President Joe Biden, likening the recovery to construction that takes time. He closed by asking listeners to weigh reelecting a team that has made strides against returning to those he blamed for causing the problem in the first place
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