JD Vance has been slammed online after he claimed that the U.S. is not at war with Iran following the attacks on Saturday.
The strikes, carried out on Sunday, marked the United States' direct entry into the conflict, coming just days after Israeli forces targeted Iran amid ongoing diplomatic talks between Tehran and Washington.
During an interview on Meet the Press Sunday, Vance was asked directly: “Are we at war?”
He responded firmly, “We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” per Reuters.
When pressed on whether Iran’s nuclear sites had been “completely obliterated” — echoing President Trump’s Saturday night statement — Vance did not fully confirm that wording.
Instead, he emphasized that U.S. forces had “substantially delayed” Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
In his words: “Severely damaged versus obliterated – I’m not exactly sure what the difference is. What we know is we set their nuclear program back substantially."
Some viewers have taken a disliking to what Vance said, with one particularly scathing comment left on X.
"This might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard," the comment read.
This cautious framing comes amid growing scrutiny of the actual impact of the U.S. strikes. Iran’s parliament reported that the Fordow enrichment plant - hit by seven B‑2 bombers carrying 14 heavy bunker-busters — “was not seriously damaged," per the Guardian.
Satellite imagery from Bloomberg and Maxar Technologies also cast doubt on the extent of the destruction: new craters and collapsed tunnel entrances were visible, but the main support buildings appeared intact, and no clear evidence suggested that the 40-meter underground facility had been breached.
At the Pentagon, General Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated: “Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the strikes as having “increased the number of participants in the Iran‑Israel conflict and ushered in a new spiral of escalation,” accusing the U.S. of a “gross violation of international law, the UN Charter, and UN Security Council resolutions,” per the New York Post.
Peskov also revealed that Trump had not informed Russian President Vladimir Putin in advance about the strike plans, per the Economic Times.
Iran claims it issued a stark warning to President Trump just days before the strike during the G7 summit in Canada, threatening to activate sleeper-cell attacks on U.S. soil if nuclear sites were targeted.
The government has assured the public that they are remaining vigilant, but have noted the increased likelihood of attacks on American soil.