Vice Presidential Pool Reports of May 7, 2025

VP pool report #1: Munich Leaders Meeting -- early start

Morning,

Vice President JD Vance is sitting for a conversation with Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference, in Washington D.C. at the Munich Leaders Meeting.

The interview was due to start at 9:30 am local time but it began several minutes early at 9:26 am. You can watch it on C-SPAN: https://www.c-span.org/event/public-affairs-event/vice-president-vance-remarks-at-munich-leaders-meeting-in-washington-dc/433043

VP Vance just finished delivering his opening remarks. He told audience that while "the United States and Europe are on the same team" that does not mean the continents won't have disagreements from time to time.

More quotes TK.

VP Pool Report #2: Russia/Ukraine war, China, Iran & rehash of previous Munich speech

The first part of the discussion after opening remarks focused on the Russia-Ukraine war. Here's some highlights of what Vance said in total – please check these against the video link I sent in my last pool report.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE

Vance said this is just how negotiations unfold and he isn't pessimistic on the status of negotiations.

"I wouldn't say that the Russians are uninterested" in ending the conflict. Rather, he said that the Russians are asking for a certain set of concessions. "We think they're asking for too much."

Once every four or five weeks, he said, the public will hear US officials outline steps that need to be taken.

Step they want right now: for the Russians and Ukranians to agree on some basic guidelines for sitting down with one another.

"We think that is the next big step that we would like to take."

Vance said the administration believes it is probably impossible to mediate the conflict entirely without at least some direct negotiation between the two nations.

He noted that Ukraine has agreed to a 30-day ceasefire, Russia doesn't view that as in their strategic interests.

"So we've tried to move beyond the obsession with the 30 day ceasefire," Vance said.

CHINA AND TRADE

Second topic was China. Taiwan came up briefly, Vance he hadn't seen reports on any kind of a strategic deal, and he couldn't comment on that.

As for China, Vance talked about rebalancing the global economy. He said the US cannot absorb hundreds of billions of dollars, close to a trillion dollars per year in annual surplus, most of it coming from the People's Republic of China.

Vance said, roughly: You've seen media reports that the Chinese reached out to the United States. Of course, we're going to sit down and talk to them. I'm not going to divulge too many details or prejudge the negotiations, but we want to rebalance trade in the interests of American workers and in the interest of American manufacturers.

The conversation moved on to trade with Europe.

Vance said: We want to make the entire world a little bit more open to the products built by American…We think that they're the best in the world, and we think that we can have a much better trading relationship with a lot of our European friends, if it just drop some of those both tariff but also non tariff trade barriers.

Time was running out, but Vance said he was "having fun" and would be willing to stay longer.

IRAN

The conversation moved on to the Middle East and Iran talks.

Among other things, Vance said, the president hates nuclear proliferation and would be willing to sit down with China and Russia in a few years to discuss it.

(That's obviously not a conversation for tomorrow. That's a conversation, God willing, for a few years from now, he said)

But he said: there is no way you get to that conversation if you allow multiple regimes all over the world to basically into this sprint for a nuclear weapon, and we really think that if the Iran domino falls, you're going to see nuclear proliferation all over the Middle East.

"Without prejudging the negotiations, I would say, so far so good," he said of talks with Iran.

Vance said the US has been with some of the intermediaries, especially Oman.

But this is going to end somewhere," he said. And it will end either in Iran eliminating their nuclear program, their nuclear weapons program, they can have civil nuclear power.

MUNICH SPEECH

The conversation wound down at 9:57 am with Ischinger telling Vance that he hopes he will continue the young tradition of US vice presidents attending the Munich Security Conference in person.

Vance then received wide applause from the audience.

He took the moment to make a joke about the reception to his previous speech in Munich in February at the formal conference.

"I wasn't sure after February that I would get the invitation back but it's good to know it's still there," Vance said.

Ischinger said, to laughter, that they thought about it.

Vance then said he wanted to offer some closing remarks. He congratulated Merz on his election in Germany and said a conversation would be taking place in a few days.

Specifically, he said that his speech in Munich applied as much to Europe as it did to the previous US administration.

"It's not Europe bad, America good," he said, it's that both got a "little bit off track," in his view, and he believes that he would encourage us all to get back on track together.

We're certainly willing and able to participate in that work, he said.

He concluded his remarks, to applause again, at roughly 10:00 am.