Ex-Trump Spox Claims JD Vance Was ‘Set Up’ as ‘Fall Guy’ for Failed Iran Agreement

Caroline Sunshine, a former staffer to President Donald Trump, claimed that Vice President JD Vance was “set up” as the “fall guy” for the broken memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran in a Thursday appearance on CNN.

On June 17, the U.S. released a copy of the memorandum of understanding (MOU), thought to be a tentative end to the war with Iran. Trump later signed the agreement in Versailles. In the days and weeks that followed, Vance made a notable number of public appearances — The View, a New York Times podcast, Real Time with Bill Maher, and more.

The MOU has since failed, with the U.S. bombing Iran on Thursday, along with airstrikes on Wednesday night, in retaliation for Iran’s ongoing targeting of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking on CNN NewsNight, Sunshine said, “I think we know now why JD Vance was sent out to go sell the MOU, and at the time, [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio was nowhere to be found. Like, if you remember, JD Vance was doing interview after interview after interview, going out and selling this deal, and Marco Rubio was, like, what? DJing a wedding, or something? Like, he was nowhere to be found, because as we’ve now seen, Vance, I think, was set up to be, you know, the fall guy for this.”

She continued, “[Iran] has figured out what we have not figured out, which is that this is an economic war. Okay? This war does not have a military solution. We’ve exhausted all the good military options. What Iran has figured out is that war is about studying your opponent, and they’ve studied President Trump very well.”

Sunshine mentioned multiple comments by Trump in late June, in which he said he feared emulating former President Herbert Hoover economically, who is frequently blamed for the Great Depression.

“Iran has studied that,” she told CNN’s Abby Phillip, “and what they’ve learned is the playbook is, ‘That’s a really nice stock market you’ve got there. It would be a shame if anything happened to it.'”

Watch the full clip above via CNN.

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