JD Vance and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week - Finley, WSJ

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The vice president, meantime, experienced a series of misfortunes reminiscent of the classic children’s book “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.”

The cease-fire he negotiated with the Iranian regime went up in smoke. His foreign policy of retreat and defeat took another blow after Russia banned diesel exports due to fuel shortages caused by Ukraine’s long-range strikes on its refineries. Then President Trump diverged from him by signaling increased support for Ukraine.

To cap it off, hedge-fund magnate Ken Griffin, a major Republican donor, said he’d favor Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a matchup between the two for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination. Oof. Unlike Alexander, the vice president’s travails are a result of his own doing.

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Mr. Vance insisted that the regime would understand that operating in good faith was in its best interest. “They want to have a much brighter future,” he said. But the regime’s vision of a brighter future entails nuclear weapons that allow it to control the region, not prosperity for its people. Nonetheless, Mr. Vance projected optimism about “coalescing with both the hard-liners and the pragmatists behind the idea, not just that they want a peace deal now, but that 47 years of Iran policy toward the United States has been a mistake.” Reports last week of a new Iranian plot to assassinate Mr. Trump argue the contrary.

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In his new book, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” Mr. Vance derides “globalists” as “misinformed” and “naive.” He explains his opposition as a senator to military aid for Ukraine as a matter of realism: “The gap between Ukraine’s and Russia’s abilities to project military power was vast, and we lacked the capacity to enable the Ukrainians to close that gap—and keep it closed—all by ourselves.”

Nobody has argued that the U.S. on its own should prop up Ukraine. The Europeans have assisted mightily. Ukraine’s ability to push back Russia in recent months and hobble its energy infrastructure and military supply chains has undercut Mr. Vance’s thesis. Who’s naive and misinformed? Equally naive and misinformed is his view that the government can revive a more traditional American culture with trade protection and industrial policy and by retreating from the world. Which may explain Mr. Griffin’s preference for Mr. Rubio.

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