‘Something fell apart’: Speculation swirls as JD Vance’s whereabouts in question

Speculation swirled Tuesday as the Trump administration offered conflicting accounts of Vice President JD Vance’s whereabouts, with President Donald Trump saying he had already left for Pakistan for peace talks with Iran, only for the White House to later contradict him.

Early Tuesday morning, Trump told The New York Post that Vance was “heading over now” to Islamabad, Pakistan, for a second round of negotiations with Iranian officials in an attempt to bring about an end to the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Citing unnamed sources, Axios published a similar report, claiming that Vance was “expected” to depart for Pakistan on Tuesday morning.

However, Vance was spotted at the White House on Tuesday afternoon by a cameraman, according to CNN’s Alayna Treene, with a White House official confirming to the outlet that Vance was, in fact, still in Washington.

Complicating things further, Trump has also claimed that the peace talks between the United States and Iran are “supposed to” happen, suggesting the negotiations have already been agreed to by both parties. Iranian officials, however, have yet to commit to peace talks, per reporting from Axios.

“It is currently unclear when Vice President JD Vance will leave Washington for Pakistan, sources familiar with the talks tell me,” Treene wrote in a social media post on X.

“The White House is planning to hold further meetings Tuesday in D.C. to discuss the path forward, ‘and Vance will be a part of them,’ they said. A key question that remained, however, was whether the Iranian delegation would also show up. As of late Tuesday morning, Iran had not committed to sending officials to Pakistan for a second round of talks.”

The conflicting statements have led to intense speculation, including from journalist and professor Adam Cochran, who suspected there was more to the story.

“Vance, Witkoff and Kushner were all set to depart for Islamabad. We later find out Trump is hosting an 'emergency meeting' at the White House, where Vance's motorcade was seen,” Cochran, an adjunct professor of information science at Consestoga College in Ontario, Canada, wrote in a social media post on X.

“And the plane carrying Witkoff and Kushner departing Miami, is now en route to Washington instead of Islamabad. Something fell apart.”