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A behind-the-scenes foreign policy conversation between President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance was leaked to the public on Monday, an extraordinary example of Vance's disagreement with Trump and other members of his administration and calling the timing of a recent military operation in Yemen "a mistake."
The private dispute was made public in a stunning report in The Atlantic on Monday, in which the magazine's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently added to a conversation in the coded group of senior Trump administration officials as they planned airstrikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
This marks the first reported incident since Trump took office. The conversation shows Vance clashing with the president and other senior officials over his hard-line stance against Europe.
"I think we're making a mistake," Vance said in the group chat, which included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, national security adviser Mike Waltz and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, according to the report. The president did not appear to be involved in the group chat.
"I'm not sure the president realizes how inconsistent this is with his message right now for Europe," Vance added. "There is a further risk that we could see a moderate to severe increase in oil prices. I'm willing to support the consensus of the team and keep those concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for pushing this back a month, doing the messaging work of why this matters, looking at where the economy is, etc."
Vance sent the message on March 14, a day before Trump announced he had authorized a series of “decisive and powerful” airstrikes on the Houthis, an Iran-backed terrorist group. Two days earlier, Trump had announced 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum, and the European Union swiftly retaliated, sending the allies into a trade war.
About 30 minutes after delivering the message, Vance told Hegseth: “If you think we should do it, let’s go. I just hate to bail out Europe again.” (The administration has argued that America’s European allies benefit economically from U.S. naval protection of international shipping lanes.)
"I completely share your hatred for European freeloading. It's pathetic," the Pentagon chief responded. However, he added, "I think we have to act."
Buckley Carlson, Vance's deputy press secretary, declined to comment to Politico. Will Martin, Vance's communications director, told The Atlantic that Vance "unequivocally supports this administration's foreign policy."
"The Vice President's first priority is always to ensure that the President's advisors are adequately briefing him on the substance of their internal discussions," Martin said, adding that Vance and Trump "had subsequent conversations on this issue and are in complete agreement."
Vance has emerged as the Trump administration’s attack dog on Europe. Last month, Vance stunned the European political establishment in a speech at the Munich Security Conference, delivering a scathing rebuke to the continent for losing its values. Other senior officials in the group chat agreed with Vance’s aversion to helping Europe, whose economy has been hit much harder by Houthi attacks on shipping lanes than the U.S.’s.
On the morning of March 15, Hegseth detailed the upcoming attacks in the group chat, which Trump announced on Truth Social about three hours later.
"I will say a prayer for victory," Vance replied. /Adapted from Pamphlet/
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