Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are slated to hit the Sunday show circuit following President Trump’s decision to strike Iran.
Vance is scheduled for an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” while Rubio is slated to appear on CBS’s “Face the Nation” and Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” the networks said.
The appearances were announced Saturday night after the U.S. bombed three Iranian nuclear sites, including the Fordow nuclear site buried inside a mountain.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that “A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow” and American aircraft had successfully exited Iranian air space.
Vance and Rubio, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, flanked Trump as the president announced the strikes at the White House on Saturday night.
“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror,” Trump said. “Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success.”
Trump declared the Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan nuclear facilities “completely and totally obliterated” and warned of more attacks if Tehran does not agree to a satisfactory peace agreement. The president did not detail specific asks or outline how negotiations could proceed following the U.S. strikes.
The White House released photos of Trump, Vance, Rubio, Hegseth and others in the Situation Room during Saturday’s operation.
Trump has long pushed for Iran to reach a deal over its nuclear program but signaled earlier this week U.S. strikes were on the table, saying Tehran could not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. The president said Thursday he would decide on whether to take direct action against Iran within two weeks.
Saturday’s strikes came a little over a week after Israel launched a broad attack on Iran, prompting the two Middle East rivals to fire a barrage of missiles at each other.
Soon after Israel initially struck Iran last week, Rubio — who also serves as Trump’s national security adviser — issued a statement distancing Washington from the attack, making it clear Israel had made a unilateral decision to hit the country.
But within days the Trump administration more explicitly embraced the attacks on Iran as Israel bombarded Tehran and killed a series of top military officials, hollowing out Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s inner circle.
“We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” Trump posted online Tuesday, while calling for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” from Iran.
Vance in a lengthy social media post earlier this week detailed the thinking inside the White House as Trump gathered with his national security aides to weigh getting directly involved in the Middle East conflict.
The vice president acknowledged that “people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy” but argued Trump “has earned some trust on this issue.”
“And having seen this up close and personal, I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish American people’s goals,” he said.
