That failure was a sign of things to come.

Indeed, the events of December 2024 came to mind this week as Vance suffered back-to-back embarrassments. The vice president led a U.S. delegation in Pakistan for talks with Iran, which ended in failure due in part to the instructions he received from Trump; and less than a day later, the world learned of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán’s landslide defeat, despite Vance having campaigned on his behalf.

These were arguably two of the most important tasks the vice president has been assigned while in office, and both ended in failure. They were not, however, his only humiliations:

Vance reportedly advised Trump not to launch the war in Iran. He was ignored.

Vance tried to lead a diplomatic effort in Greenland last year, which was met with a swift and unsubtle backlash.

Vance tried to boost Germany’s right-wing party AfD in the country’s 2025 elections, and those efforts fell short, too.

Throughout his tenure, Vance has been publicly contradicted by Trump on everything from pardons to the deployment of federal troops to U.S. cities to immigration policy.

The vice president, in other words, isn’t exactly racking up victories.

At a recent White House event, Trump asked Vance to comment on negotiations with Iran. When the vice president said the process was “going good,” the president quickly followed up, asking whether the efforts would resolve the war. Vance hedged and said he’d brief Trump later.

“So if it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance,” the president concluded. “If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”