Politics
The Communion author better hope the reception of this Iran deal improves.
June 19, 2026 5:45 AM
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Tierney L. Cross/Pool/AFP via Getty Images and Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images.
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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Surge, a very special Friday Federal Holiday edition that makes a great reading companion to your steak-and-sauerkraut breakfast .
The United States and Iran have agreed at last on a framework for a deal to end the war, a tremendous success for Trump if it works and a total failure for J.D. Vance if it doesn’t. We also check in on some of this week’s primary results—in which a prominent Trump endorsee lost—and consider Trump’s gleaming gunk pool on the National Mall.
Before we get rolling, we want to plug Slate’s revamped daily Slatest newsletter, in which Slate’s Ian Prasad Philbrick breaks down the biggest news story of the day. Sign up here .
To Iran!
1.
J.D. Vance
Ready to perform his vice presidential duties: Eating the blame.
The release of the administration’s memorandum of understanding with Iran was greeted with sharp pushback from Iran hawks. We don’t get it: Wasn’t it actually pretty nice of the Iranians to offer a conditional surrender after defeating the U.S. in the war? If finalized, the MOU would offer Iran $300 billion for reconstruction, unfrozen funds, the cessation of sanctions, and more in exchange for a down-blending of their existing nuclear material and a return to the status quo ante in the Strait of Hormuz. This led GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy to describe the Iran war as “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”
But while Cassidy, who lost his primary, has the political space to voice his true feelings, most other Republicans are still too in thrall to Trump to say that he biffed it. Fortunately, there’s a constitutional position that serves as a political blame receptacle: the vice president. J.D. Vance has served point on these negotiations, and should the final deal even closely resemble the MOU, he’s going to hear about it. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has put Vance on notice, and other GOP senators say they are eager to hear him defend the deal. On the other hand, Vance already has been selling the deal in anti-war terms as he seeks to shore up ties with elements of the MAGA coalition turned off by Trump’s militarism.
Take it from Trump himself. At the G7 summit this week, Trump said of the deal , “If it works out, I’m going to take the credit. If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming J.D. You better be careful, J.D. He’s gonna turn his plane around and get the hell out of here.” He said this in a joking, busting-his-chops way. (Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood stone-faced behind Trump’s shoulder.) But rest assured, he will say it in a quite serious way if the time comes. Anyway, congrats to the veep on his book , for which he is on a publicity tour while also negotiating the end of a war.
2.
Jay Clayton
Trump delaying his own nominee’s confirmation for … reasons.
Trump’s nominee to be the permanent new director of national intelligence was delayed on Wednesday because … Trump decided to delay him. Posting from Europe, Trump directed Clayton not to attend his own confirmation hearing on Wednesday, ostensibly because he wanted Clayton’s replacement as a prosecutor confirmed first. That means that mortgage-application-sleuth Bill Pulte remains as acting DNI, even though Democrats have been quite clear that they won’t reauthorize warrantless wiretapping powers so long as that’s the case.
What the hell is going on here? “Good question,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said about why Trump was delaying his own nominee’s confirmation and alongside it reauthorization of a program the administration deems vital. Some suggested that he was creating a little bit of a news-cycle distraction just as the terms of the Iran MOU were about to drop. There’s merit to that.
But consider another demand he made in the same more-incomprehensible-than-normal screed in which he directed Clayton not to attend his hearing. Trump says he won’t sign the reauthorized surveillance law unless the SAVE America Act, the GOP’s elections bill that does not and will not ever have the votes, is attached to it. This is a continuation, then, of the feud between Trump and Senate Republicans, who have pushed back on Trump against ballroom funding, his DOJ slush fund, the Pulte nomination, and his demands that the filibuster be nuked or the Senate parliamentarian fired. He’s mad at them, and so he’s fucking with them.
3.
Pesky algae blooms
Can no amount of poison clean this slime hole?
President Trump made quick work of his $14 million renovation and repainting of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after decrying how it had been “filthy” and “disgusting,” and promising to restore it with “c…
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