The Dictatorship
Vance touts ‘successful’ first round of U.S.-Iran talks after Trump threatens new attacks
Vice President JD Vance on Monday said the U.S. and Iran built “a successful foundation” during the first round of negotiations in Switzerlandover the weekend, days after the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to end the war.
Vance denied reports that Iranian negotiators left the negotiations after President Donald Trump threatened Iran with more attacks if it closed the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump had said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday morning that he had spoken to Iranian officials overnight, warning them not to close the critical trade route at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
“You close it and you won’t have a country,” Trump said he told Iranian officials, referring to the strait. Speaking with Fox News’ Trey Yingst, Trump added: “You won’t even make it back to your f–––ing country. We may take over the strait, if we have to. If they don’t make a deal, we’ll collect tolls. I’ll blow the s––– out of them.”
Speaking to reporters in Lucerne, Switzerland, on Monday, Vance said Iran’s negotiating team did not leave the talks early.
“No, they didn’t throw a wrench in the system,” Vance said. “The thing with the Iranians, yes, they did threaten to walk out, or at least there were social media threats that they would walk out, but we were negotiating well past 1 in the morning yesterday, so they didn’t walk out, and their technical team is still here in Bürgenstock, working with our technical team, actually, as we speak, though I imagine maybe some of them are taking a break to watch this news conference.”
A senior Pakistani official with knowledge of the negotiations told MS NOW on Sunday that Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met with the Iranian delegation in a last-ditch effort to keep them on site. A source also inside the room when the talks were taking place told MS NOW that the Iranians were “frustrated” by Trump’s comments and that the first round ended earlier than expected as a result.
A source inside the room when the talks were taking place told MS NOW that the Iranians were “frustrated” by Trump’s comments and that the first round ended earlier than expected as a result.
The senior Pakistani official said later that “the Iranians have come round” and that the talks would continue.
In a post on X late Sunday morning, Iran’s parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, responded to Trump with a warning. “We don’t count on the threats of the Americans,” he said. “They better be careful with their statements; our armed forces are ready to respond in another way. Whatever they say, we are the ones who will act.”
The American delegation, led by Vance, and the Iranian delegation, led by Ghalibaf, as well as Pakistani and Qatari mediators, arrived earlier in the day at the Bürgenstock mountainside resort overlooking Lake Lucerne in Switzerland.
“We’ve already made great progress over just the last few hours, and I expect that we’ll make additional progress in the hours to come,” Vance said Sunday, standing alongside Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
Touting what he said were successful negotiations, Vance said Iran agreed to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, into the country, which he called “a major milestone for the American people, and the first step in permanently denuclearizing or permanently ending a nuclear weapons program in Iran.”
The two sides also focused on setting up the process for technical nuclear negotiations and building a mechanism for keeping the strait open to vital maritime traffic, Vance said.
The framework outlined in the memorandum of understanding creates a 60-day window to establish a final agreement, “extendable with mutual consent.”
Iran has deemed the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon a red line in any agreement.
Trump, in recent days, has also publicly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his military assault on Lebanon.
“I say, ‘You can do a little softer touch, Bibi,’” Trump said, referring to Netanyahu, at the Group of Seven summit in France last week. “You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah.”
Vance, when asked Sunday if he had a message for Netanyahu, said: “I actually feel great about where we are in Lebanon. There’s still some additional wood to chop, but we’re going to keep on working at it.”
Nearly 3,800 people have died in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry. More than 3,600 have died in the war in Iran, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
The Switzerland talks and the signing of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding came about 15 weeks after Trump and Netanyahu directed a joint attackon Iran on Feb. 28, launching a war that has spilled over to neighboring countries.
The war sent the price of oil and gas skyrocketing after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz.
The memorandum states that Iran will ensure the safe and free passage of commercial vessels through the strait for the duration of the 60 days, but will work with Oman “to define the future administration and maritime services” for the waterway, which had been open to all before the war. On Saturday, Iran declared the strait closedagain, citing Israel’s strikes in Lebanon on Friday night. U.S. Central Command disputed that the waterway remained shut to commercial vessels, saying that traffic in the strait had increased Saturday.
Iran has also reaffirmed that it will not “procure or develop nuclear weapons,” a key reason Trump cited for starting the conflict but a promise Iran had long made publicly. The U.S. and Iran agreed to discuss how Tehran will dispose of its highly enriched uranium stockpile, with supervision from the U.S. and the IAEA.
Notably, the memorandum does not mention the destruction of Iran’s ballistic missile program, another chief concern for U.S. allies in the region and one the Trump administration had insisted was also a primary goal of the war.
In a win for Iran, the memorandum also says the U.S. agrees to work toward ending sanctions, which have long hampered the country’s economy.
This story has been updated to include Vance’s comments on Monday.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
Inzamam Rashid is a MS NOW contributor and Monocle’s Gulf Correspondent based in Dubai. He has previously reported for Sky News and the BBC
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.
The Dictatorship
Monday’s Campaign Round-Up, 6.22.26: Why Trump backed both Republicans in a key S.C. race
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In South Carolina’s gubernatorial raceDonald Trump endorsed Lt. Gov. Pam Evette last month. Last week, however, ahead of this week’s primary runoff election in the race, the president published an online item telling voters that “you can’t go wrong” with either Evette or state Attorney General Alan Wilson.
If this sounds at all familiar, it’s because Trump has done this before. Around this time two years ago, for example, he endorsed both Republicans running in a congressional primary in Arizona. And two years before that, he endorsed two leading contenders in a Senate primary in Missouri.
Only the president can say for sure why he ended up endorsing Evette and Wilson in the South Carolina race, though it’s worth emphasizing for context that GOP primary voters have already ignored his direction into two gubernatorial primaries this month, and it stands to reason that he hoped to avoid a third.
* We’re one day away from a variety of notable racesincluding but not limited to South Carolina’s gubernatorial race. There are also some congressional primaries in a handful of statesincluding Maryland, New York and Utah.
* In took a while, but the ballots have been tallied under Maine’s ranked-choice systemand we now know that Democrat Hannah Pingree, the former state House speaker, will face off against Republican Bobby Charles, who worked at the State Department during the Bush-Cheney era.
* As for Maine’s closely watched congressional racestate Auditor Matt Dunlap won the Democratic nomination in the battleground 2nd District, defeating state Sen. Joe Baldacci, who enjoyed the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Dunlap will run in the fall against a familiar figure: former Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who had moved to Florida a few years ago, but who returned to run for Congress.
* In California’s congressional special electiontwo Democratic candidates — state Sen. Aisha Wahab and Melissa Hernandez, a Bay Area Rapid Transit director — have advanced to an Aug. 18 special general election. The winner will fill the vacancy left by disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April.
* In a new commercial shared first with MS NOWDemocrat James Talarico has launched his campaign’s first multimillion-dollar ad buy in Texas’ gubernatorial race. In the 30-second spot, Talarico focuses on affordability and the cost of living. The state lawmaker will face scandal-plagued state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the fall.
* And in New Jersey, Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr.who has been missing from Capitol Hill since early March, will reportedly return to work on June 30according to a statement from his spokesperson. Neither Kean nor his office have offered any public information about why he has been away.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
The Dictatorship
Trump tries dual endorsement in South Carolina as his pick for governor flounders in polls
After President Donald Trump’s pick for governor in Iowa lost in the Republican primary earlier this month, the president argued that he “would have endorsed the other person” if he had “the proper information.”
Trump is taking no chances in the South Carolina gubernatorial primary. Over the weekend he rescinded his exclusive endorsement of Pamela Evette, the lieutenant governor, announcing instead that he would support both Evette and her runoff opponent, Alan Wilson, the state’s attorney general.
The move put Evette’s political future in jeopardy: Even before Trump’s dual endorsement, she trailed in limited public polling and was seen by political observers in South Carolina as a weak candidate with little to show besides the president’s coveted endorsement.
“Her chief distinction from Alan Wilson was that Trump endorsed her,” said Dr. Dubose Kapeluck, a professor of political science at the Citadel Military College of South Carolina.
Trump’s dual endorsement “was a kiss of death,” he told MS NOW.
Evette, who moved to South Carolina from Ohio to found a successful payroll and HR company in 2000, has been lieutenant governor since 2019, serving under Gov. Henry McMaster, who is term-limited.
In office, she has pursued meaningful but little-celebrated policies, like a key tort reform bill, according to Gil Gatch, a Republican member of the South Carolina state House and an Evette supporter.
But voters could be forgiven for knowing little about Evette besides the fact that Trump endorsed her, which he did just days before the June 9 primary. Visitors to her campaign website are greeted with a full-screen message labeling Evette as “Trump-endorsed.” The first line in her X bio states the same. Pro-Evette television ads are quick to tout the endorsement.
An accomplishment like tort reform, while noted on Evette’s website, “maybe could have been something that was highlighted more heavily,” Gatch told MS NOW.
The political makeup of South Carolina nearly guarantees the next governor will be whoever emerges on Tuesday between Evette and Wilson. They survived a crowded primary field on June 9, and nearly every challenger who fell short of the runoff publicly endorsed the attorney general.
“She’s just not a good candidate,” Josh Kimbrell, a state senator who failed to make the runoff and has since said he’d back Wilson, said of Evette.
“She kind of assumed this was a coronation, and that was never going to go over that well,” he added.
Even some pro-Trump voters were confused by the president’s initial endorsement of Evette, whom he called “a good friend, fighter, and WINNER” in a social media post in May.
“I have no clue why Trump would endorse Pamela Evette,” Leland Lemmons, a 30-year-old Trump supporter told MS NOW as he exited a polling site in the Greenville suburb of Easley on June 9.
“She’s served, you know, a decent time. I just haven’t seen much fruition of what she’s done in office,” he added.
In a post on Truth Social Friday announcing his dual endorsement, Trump wrote, “I can’t hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other, so, therefore, I am going to Endorse, for Governor of South Carolina, both Pam Evette and Alan Wilson!”
In a subsequent statement on X, Evette said, “I was proud to come in first as [Trump’s] endorsed candidate for Governor on June 9th. Looking forward to doing it again on June 23rd.”
After The Washington Post foreshadowed the dual endorsement last Tuesday, allies of Evette were quick to denounce the possibility.
“I would guess that’s fake news,” Suzanne Pucci, a member of Evette’s finance committee, told MS NOW of the chance Trump would also endorse Wilson. “She’s probably not real worried about it.”
Another close ally and supporter told MS NOW at the time the report was “a total, fabricated lie.”
“[Trump] is invested in Pamela Evette because she invested in him. He’s a loyal guy. That kind of stuff is important to him,” added the supporter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“With or without Trump, I think she is going to win,” they said.
On Thursday, a senior campaign aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, brushed off the idea of a dual endorsement, telling MS NOW in a statement, “Pamela Evette has earned the complete and total endorsement of President Trump. She is the only Trump-endorsed candidate in this race and we look forward to delivering a big win for the president on Tuesday.”
Roughly 24 hours later, Trump retracted the exclusive endorsement.
Will McDuffie is a reporter for MS NOW.
As last week’s G7 summit in France got underway, a reporter asked Donald Trump whether his purported deal with Iran was final. “No, it’s not final,” the president replied. Later that day — during a visit to Versaillesof all places — he signed the framework anyway.
But moments after signing his name to the memorandum of understanding, Trump offered an unsubtle hint about what he was thinking at the time. Amid applause from those around him, the American president pointed down and then up while saying“Oil down, stocks up.”
In other words, Trump’s focus had nothing to do with natural security and everything to do with the economy. What’s more, the four-word phrase was part of a larger and underappreciated pattern. The Washington Post reported:
In the more than 100 days since President Donald Trump launched a war with Iran, he has offered a shifting list of reasons for why he started the conflict. But in explaining his push for peace, he named a priority much closer to home: protecting the stock market.
“I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Alpine spa town of Évian-les-Bains, France, after the Group of Seven summit.
As the summit wrapped up, the Republican similarly said“I’ve studied presidents, some good, some bad, some great. Not too many are great and some really bad. … And the one president I did not want to be was the late, great Herbert Hoover. I didn’t want that and who knows what would have happened.”
He pushed the same point in an interview with Axios, which was released over the weekend.
“If I went further, the stock market would be much lower,” the president said. “Now think of this: I have one primary wish as president, in terms of people: I never want to be the late, great Herbert Hoover.”
The comments came days after Trump similarly argued“The alternative to this deal was a global recession. There are stupid people who want to see a global recession. They are just stupid people.”
Whether the president fully appreciates the implications of his own rhetoric, this string of comments doesn’t just shed light on his motivations for accepting a defeat, it also suggests he saw his failed policy in Iran as pushing the global economy toward a dangerous cliff.
In other words, based on Trump’s own comments, the war he started was poised to create an “economic catastrophe,” which he was desperate to avoid — and which led him to accept a framework that empowered Iran to get what it wanted in exchange for effectively no concessions at all.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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