California Gov. Gavin Newsom has savaged Vice President JD Vance after his two global public humiliations in one weekend.
Vance was deployed by President Donald Trump to negotiate with Iran on behalf of the U.S. in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Saturday. He was joined by Steve Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.
The extensive talks failed to reach an agreement. Vance left on Sunday morning, blaming the failure on Iran’s refusal to abandon any nuclear weapons program, while Iran said the U.S., led by the vice president, had failed to “gain the trust of the Iranian delegation.”
In another blow to the VP’s global clout, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán suffered a crushing election defeat just days after Vance had traveled to the country to campaign for Orbán, who is a close ally of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
The opposition party Tisza, led by Péter Magyar, brought an end to Orbán’s 16 years in power with a landslide victory, suggesting that one possible effect of Vance’s appearance on the ground was to turn voters away from Orbán.
Newsom gloated on his personal X account, saying, “JD Vance proves he’s a lightweight twice in 48 hours.”
He added, “Congratulations to the people of Hungary -- democracy, free press and human rights win today. There is hope.”
The center-right Magyar is pro-European Union. His party, Tisza, takes its name from the Hungarian words for freedom and respect. It is also the name of one of the country’s major rivers, with the political party referred to as “sweeping” or “flooding” through Hungary.
“We did it,” Magyar told supporters after his victory. “Together we overthrew the Hungarian regime.”
In preliminary forecasts cited by the BBC, with more than 98 percent of votes counted, Magyar was on target to win 138 seats, compared to 55 for Orbán’s party, Fidesz, and six for the far-right Our Homeland.
Last week, Newsom posted on X, “The Vice President is abroad campaigning for a dictator. The President is threatening to wipe out an entire civilization. Congress is on recess. This is a total collapse of American moral leadership — at a historic scale."
He was not the only Democrat to gloat about Vance’s dual failures.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer shared a post that said Vance was returning to Washington “having put the nail” in Orbán’s coffin and failed to secure a deal with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps over Trump’s war. It said it was a “disastrous trip” for Vance’s political standing.
“Republicans - please put this guy on the campaign trail,” Schumer wrote.
The Daily Beast has contacted reps for Vance for comment.
After the negotiations with Iran collapsed, Trump posted on Truth Social, threatening to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane that has been a bottleneck for global oil supplies since the war began on Feb. 28.
The president claimed Iran had said “there may be a mine out there somewhere” in the Strait and called it “WORLD EXTORTION.”
He railed: “Iran will not be allowed to profit off this Illegal Act of EXTORTION. They want money and, more importantly, they want Nuclear. Additionally and, at an appropriate moment, we are fully “LOCKED AND LOADED,” and our Military will finish up the little that is left of Iran!”
After Vance returned from Pakistan, Trump claimed he was not worried about resuming negotiations with Iran. “I don’t care if they come back or not,” he said. “If they don’t come back, I’m fine.”
