Stephanie Kaloi – Yahoo News Sept 11, 2026
Click to enlarge
Vice President JD Vance calls US military commanders himself for their “unvarnished assessments of the Iran war,” The New York Times’ Jonathan Swan, Adam Entous, and Maggie Haberman wrote Thursday.
The Times reporters spoke to “current and former officials” in the White House.
Vance is said to discuss “an array of issues related to the war, including its objectives, tactics, casualty estimates, what the Iranians would do in the Strait of Hormuz, how adaptable they had become, and how much punishment their government could absorb.”
He has “also asked for a detailed accounting of what remained in the commanders’ stockpiles, and how the transfer of weapons to the Middle East would affect their ability to deter China, Russia and North Korea.”
The vice president left some of the conversations with “deep concerns about the overall strategy and the prospects for success.” He has also “incorporated these lessons into his private talks with Mr. Trump and their inner circle.”
Among other things, the conversations illustrate Vance “is now immersed in a costly and inconclusive war that could shadow him in a potential 2028 presidential campaign.”
Swan, Entous, and Haberman also revealed there is “a gulf” that exists “between the sobering private assessments that Mr. Vance received and what top administration officials, including the president and vice president, have said publicly.” President Donald Trump has “continued to falsely claim that the United States has already won the war, that the Iranian military has been demolished and that there are no problems with U.S. weapons supplies,” and Vance himself recently appeared to suggest the United States is not actually involved in a war.
Those claims run counter to the conversations Vance has had and shared with others.
“Mr. Vance’s calls to the commanders were made with the knowledge of the president; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; General [Dan] Caine; Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as the national security adviser; and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, according to officials with direct knowledge,” The Times also wrote.