Vice President JD Vance asserted in a bombshell interview with Joe Rogan that some in the Israeli government want to derail US negotiations with Iran to keep the war going “indefinitely” — and he acknowledged the Trump administration “screwed up” the release of the Epstein files.
“I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there have been people within the Israeli government who are trying to, like, actually shift us away from [negotiations] because they want to continue the military campaign,” Vance told the popular podcaster during an episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” released Wednesday.
“There are some people within their system, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely,” the vice president later added. “Again, not towards any objective, but just indefinitely.”
Without naming Israel, Vance further alleged that there is a “very discreet, extremely well-funded … literal foreign-influence campaign being funded to tank” the Iran deal.
The vice president, however, was adamant that Israeli pressure didn’t influence President Trump’s decision to go to war in Iran.
“I think the president, completely separate from any influence from Israel, believes very strongly, and again I agree with this, that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon.”
Vance described himself as a “reasonable moderate” in the “massive pro-Israel, anti-Israel debate” taking place in the US.
He also noted “there are a lot of elements within the Israeli government that actually do like our peace process” and recognize that an “indefinite campaign is not good for them either.”
Vance argued that bombing Iran “to oblivion” wouldn’t make it any easier to secure the Strait of Hormuz.
“You can bomb them. You can take away their radar. You can take away some of their drones and some of their missiles, but it’s just too easy to fire at ships in the straits,” he said. “So, you’ve got to actually be willing to talk and to try to figure out the problem.”
Vance refused to say if he would’ve launched the Iran war if he were president.
“I’m not a public commentator,” he argued, while noting Trump described him as being “less enthusiastic” about the Iran war than others in his administration.
“My approach to this is not to Monday morning quarterback a decision that was made three months ago,” Vance explained. “My approach to it is to try to make it as successful as possible. Which is why I’ve poured my heart and soul into these negotiations.”
Midway through the nearly three-hour-long interview, Rogan asked Vance about the Trump administration’s “resistance” to releasing government files related to notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
The vice president acknowledged missteps but insisted there was no cover-up.
“We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files. Like, we just did,” Vance said. “But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No.”
A month into Trump’s second term, former Attorney General Pam Bondi infamously teased during a Fox News interview that Epstein’s “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now to review” and would be released.
Days later, Bondi gave binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” to a group of conservative influencers who had been invited to the White House. However, the binders contained no new information, but were merely extracts from the notorious pedophile’s phone book.
“I don’t know what the purpose of it was, but I know that the effect of it was to make people mistrust the entire effort,” Vance said.
“I know Pam. I like Pam,” he said of the fired former attorney general. “I don’t think there was anything malicious going on. I think Pam was trying to respond to the political moment.
“I think she overstated what we had and what we didn’t have and I think that she, you know, got roasted for it publicly by a lot of people, including me.”
Vance described himself as an “OG Epstein conspiracy theorist” who has gone down “every single rabbit hole” related to the well-connected, disgraced financier.
“He clearly had connections to the upper, the highest levels of American intelligence,” Vance said of Epstein. “He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.”
However, the vice president noted the government does not possess any documentation connecting him to the US and foreign intelligence agencies – and he suggested that if that evidence existed, it may have been destroyed around the time of Epstein’s 2008 criminal case in Florida.
“I’ve asked, ‘Were there documents connecting Jeffrey Epstein directly to our intelligence agencies or anybody else’s?” And the answer is no,” Vance said.
“But if that s–t existed, it wouldn’t exist in 2026.”
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
