The White House sought to tamp down speculation that the administration could use a nuclear weapon in Iran, rejecting a post on social media that alleged Vice President JD Vance had implied it might do so.
“We’ve got tools in our toolkit that we so far haven’t decided to use. The president of the United States can decide to use them. And he will decide to use them if the Iranians don’t change their course of conduct,” Vance told reporters in Hungary earlier Monday.
That comment — along with President Donald Trump’s Truth Social warning that a “whole civilization will die tonight” — prompted some online speculation that Vance was referring to the use of nuclear weapons.
The White House’s Rapid Response X account responded to a post from an account run by Democratic operatives that said Vance “implies Trump might use nuclear weapons,” by writing, “Literally nothing @VP said here ‘implies’ this, you absolute buffoons.”
But the online chatter — which has also popped up among some corners of the right — underscores anxiety ahead of Trump’s 8 p.m. ET deadline for Iran to make a deal or risk major attacks on its critical infrastructure.