Vice President
J.D. Vance
is really having difficulty staying aligned with President
Donald Trump
‘s messaging.
Just two days after Vance declared the India-Pakistan conflict “none of our business,” Trump swept in with a different message—announcing that the U.S. helped broker a ceasefire between the two countries.
During a Fox News interview on Thursday, Vance asserted that the U.S. would not take significant action to prevent the intensifying dispute between the two nuclear-powered neighboring countries from worsening.
“What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit, but we’re not going to get involved in the middle of war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it,”
Vance said
, probably anticipating alignment with Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.
On Saturday morning, though, Trump decided to go public with his comments.
Truth Social
To claim responsibility for a truce he stated his government had negotiated.
Following an extensive overnight discussion facilitated by the United States, I’m delighted to share that India and Pakistan have concurred with a TOTAL AND INSTANT CEASEFIRE,” he stated. “I congratulate both nations for employing Good Judgment and High Intellect.
Vance quickly
posted on X
“Excellent effort from the President’s team, particularly Secretary Rubio. I am also grateful to the leaders of India and Pakistan for their diligent work and readiness to participate in this ceasefire agreement.”
In March, it was disclosed that Vance had
questioned Trump’s foreign policy messaging
when his Signal messages were leaked without the president knowing.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” Vance texted other members of the Trump Cabinet. He said framing planned U.S. strikes on Houthi forces in Yemen as protecting European trade was a “mistake,” given that Trump had launched a trade war against Europe.
Contradicting Trump’s claims, India on Saturday said that the ceasefire with Pakistan was negotiated “directly between the two countries,” according to
Rolling Stone
.
Nevertheless, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif did decide to go
X
late Saturday morning to “thank President Trump for his leadership and proactive role for peace in the region,” and also expressed his gratitude toward Vance and Rubio. “Pakistan appreciates the United States for facilitating this outcome, which we have accepted in the interest of regional peace and stability,” Sharif said.
Regardless of who brokered the deal, the truce didn’t hold. Within hours of the announcement, India’s foreign secretary Vikram Misri accused Pakistan of breaking the ceasefire almost immediately,
telling reporters
there had been “repeated violations of the understanding arrived between the two countries today.”
In response, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said the country “remains committed to a faithful implementation of the ceasefire” and accused India of violating the truce “in some areas,” according to
CNN
.
Tensions between the countries are at their
highest levels in more than two decades
after India hit Pakistan with missiles on Wednesday in retaliation for a terror attack on tourists in India-controlled Kashmir last month. The Kashmir region is divided between India and Pakistan, but both nations claim full sovereignty over it.
Trump called the missile attack “
a shame
” and said he hoped it would “end quickly,” but it wasn’t until Friday that Vance
reportedly
called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to urge him to deescalate.
