“Not even a little bit,” the president said. “The only thing that matters, when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.”

It was a politically problematic comment for a president who campaigned on bringing down prices above everything else.

Cue the president’s cleanup guy. 

“I don’t think the president said that,” Vance told reporters a day later at a White House press conference. “I think that’s a misinterpretation.”

Fine. Move on.

Except Trump is not that sort of president.

It was a “perfect statement,” Trump told Fox News anchor Bret Baier soon after. 

“I’d make it again,” he added for good measure. “Everybody agrees.” 

Vance has been in the role since the campaign. His frequent appearances in front of the cameras mean he often has to field questions about what Trump has just said or done.

Sometimes that puts him in cleanup mode, other times he plays decoder or explainer.

It happened on legal immigration last year. The vice president spent weeks building a case that even legal immigration was too high, that foreign workers were undercutting American wages, and that the country needed to pull back sharply on who was allowed in. 

“We have to get the overall numbers way, way down,” he said at the University of Mississippi in October, adding that the optimal number of legal immigrants was “far less than what we’ve been accepting.”

Within two weeks, Trump defended H-1B visas, the program that imports foreign expertise. He told Fox News that the United States needed them to “bring in talent” to do jobs where there were skills shortages.

Vance is not the only one at risk of being undercut or outright contradicted.

“I think that this is a problem that everyone who is in the administration has,” said a former Trump administration official. “If it really is a problem that is.”

Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, has found himself announcing policies only for them to be halted hours later. More on that below.

And Speaker Mike Johnson was another who ran cleanup on the president’s comments about Iran and voters’ financial struggles, only to find himself zigging when Trump was zagging.

For Vance the pattern was set on Trump’s first day back in the Oval Office. He signed pardons for Jan 6 convicts, nine days after Vance had said ‘obviously’ people with violent convictions on that day shouldn’t be pardoned.

When the vice president tried to reassure the public about National Guard deployments – “The president is not going out there forcing this on anybody,” he said last September – before Trump tried to do exactly that.

Matt Lewis, a conservative author and podcaster, said it was hard for anyone in the president’s team to speak for such a mercurial leader. It was doubly hard for his vice president.

“When you’re carrying someone else’s water, it’s hard to look strong and decisive,” he said.

“Then I think on top of that, with Donald Trump, it’s especially dicey. I mean, Trump has taken stances on things like Iran that really go counter to Vance’s fundamental brand, and then if you try to play the role of explainer and take something undiplomatic that Trump has said and try to clean it up, make it more palatable, perhaps more ironic, it won’t work because Trump won’t allow you to play that role.

“It’s just a pattern of his.”

Vance’s position and willingness to take questions at the end of speeches makes him the most vulnerable of Trump’s lieutenants.Rubio has tamped down media appearances in the past couple of months.

MARCO RUBIO SCHOOLS MISBEHAVING WHITE HOUSE PRESS CORPS

But when Vance takes the briefing room lectern later today, the memory of Rubio’s briefing will be hanging in the air. 

Two weeks ago he told reporters that the war with Iran was over, and the focus had switched to escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

 “Epic Fury, as the president notified Congress, we’re done with that stage of it, OK? We’re now on to this Project Freedom,” he said.

About two hours later, Trump announced that he was pausing Project Freedom.

How Fox & Friends saved British blushes

King Charles III had already landed on American soil when the Financial Times dropped its bombshell report. It had embarrassing audio recording of British Ambassador Sir Christian Turner telling British students that America’s “special relationship” was “probably Israel” rather than the U.K.

He also ran the rule over Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s grip on power. But most worryingly for a diplomatic team focused on ensuring the King’s visit went off smoothly, without attracting the irritation of Trump, he also talked about the Jeffrey Epstein affair.

How “extraordinary” it was, he said, that the American political system had failed to hold US associates of the pedophile to account.

The story dropped on the second day of the royal visit, just as Turner and the King were due to hold a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office with one of Epstein’s best-known associates, the president himself.

What would Trump’s reaction be? The Brits steeled themselves for an awkward encounter with a president who hates to be reminded of his long past friendship with Epstein.

Secrets can reveal that British officials need not have worried. When Turner arrived with his royal charge, Trump could not have been more welcoming.

And the reason? A fortunate appearance on the president’s favorite TV show. He turned to the ambassador and said he was delighted to have seen him that morning on Fox & Friends, when Turner endorsed the American position that Iran must not have a nuclear weapon and set out the president and King’s personal connection. 

Three times more during a day of speeches, pomp and military bands Trump returned to the appearance, praising Turner’s TV hit.

The Financial Times story was one of the few wobbles during a successful visit. And even that was smoothed out with a TV appearance designed for an audience of one.

Lunchtime reading

G.O.P. supporters back Trump, but a third seek a new direction for the party: A New York Times/Siena poll suggests there may be a path for a potential 2028 nominee to take a different approach to foreign policy, in particular. However, the president’s grip remains firm.

Iran thinks Trump is bluffing, even as it braces for another round of punishing U.S. airstrikes: Our Jamie McIntyre on Trump’s cycle of threats and frustration while Iran digs in.

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