Republicans question the U.S.-Iran deal. Many are blaming JD Vance.

Many Republicans across the right are bashing interim deal between the US-Iran as an unnecessary surrender. 

“This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades,” Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana wrote in a Wednesday post on X. “Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works.”

“Now, Iran gets to build brand-new infrastructure under this deal,” he continued. 

Other Republicans, like Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, have balked at the amount of resources the US is giving to Iran—including sourcing at least $300 billion to fund reconstruction in Iran. The Trump administration has repeatedly said this week that the money would come from other Gulf countries. 

The Trump administration read the agreement to journalists on Wednesday and both countries are expected to sign it in a formal ceremony on Friday. While extremely vague in how it will be achieved, the “memorandum of understanding” provides financial and political concessions to Iran for the country to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and reaffirm that it will not develop nuclear weapons: immediately allowing Iran to sell its oil and terminating all sanctions against Iran, among others. 

But as I wrote on Wednesday, Trump seems to be aware of the dissatisfaction from his own party, stating that the deal isn’t “final,” he may resume bombing if Iran doesn’t “behave,” and that Vice President JD Vance—and definitely not the president—is responsible for the negotiated deal.

While Sen. Cassidy lost last month’s primary election to two Republicans, including Trump’s choice, Julia Letlow, even the president’s allies voiced opposition (although in a less direct way). 

“The president is getting, I think, very poor advice when it comes to this deal,” Sen. Ted Cruz told the Daily Wire on Wednesday. “History teaches that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is a bad idea.”

Likewise, on Wednesday, far right political commentator Ben Shapiro said on Fox News that the agreement looks like a disaster and “does not achieve any of the signal goals that were set by the administration at the beginning,” including ending all nuclear enrichment, ballistic missiles, and support of terrorism.

“In my opinion, the Vice President of the United States, the chief negotiator on this particular project, has not well served the president,” Shapiro concluded. 

On Thursday afternoon, the US military announced that it had officially lifted its blockade on ships entering and exiting Iranian ports. The Trump administration stated that the blockade, which started in April, was designed to stop Iran from profiting off its closure of the Strait of Hormuz and put further pressure on the country to reopen the passageway.

Just after the deal was announced on Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the president’s most devoted loyalists, wrote on X that he was “somewhat concerned that Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming.” The senator didn’t elaborate on what specific worries he had but said on Wednesday that it was worth seeing whether Iran would follow through on its word, as the agreement would significantly help his and Trump’s “ultimate goal” of normalizing relations between Israel and several Arab countries.

But JD Vance, who has seemingly become the fall guy if the deal with Iran fails, has, at least publicly, chosen to stand by the negotiations, saying in a White House press conference on Thursday that critics should, “number one, have a little bit of faith in the president.”