The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) appears to have misrepresented Vice President J.D. Vance’s statements in a Friday headline, suggesting he threatened military and economic action to pressure Russia into a peace deal for Ukraine.
The WSJ interviewed Vance for its Friday article, titled “Vance Wields Threat of Sanctions, Military Action to Push Putin Into Ukraine Deal.” However, according to transcripts released by Vance’s staff, he did not explicitly threaten Russia with military action or sanctions. Instead, he broadly stated that President Donald Trump would keep all options open in negotiations to end the war.
“Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the U.S. would hit Moscow with sanctions and potentially military action if Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t agree to a peace deal with Ukraine that guarantees Kyiv’s long-term independence,” the WSJ’s article stated. A tweet from the outlet’s official account echoed this claim, asserting that “Vance pledged to hit Russia with sanctions and potentially military action if Putin won’t agree to a peace deal that guarantees Ukraine’s independence.”
William Martin, Vance’s communications director, accused the WSJ of publishing “pure fake news” and shared excerpts from the interview transcript on X to counter the article’s claims.
“The Vice President didn’t make any threats. He simply stated the fact that no one is going to take options away from President Trump as these negotiations begin,” Martin wrote.
The shared transcript excerpts indicate Vance’s remarks were not as forceful as the WSJ portrayed.
When asked by the WSJ about potential pressure on Putin to adhere to a peace deal, Vance responded:
“I think certainly look there, there are instruments of pressure, absolutely and again, if you look to President Trump’s approach to this, the range of options is extremely broad, and there are economic tools of leverage. There, of course, military tools of leverage. There’s a whole host of things that we could do. But fundamentally, I think the president wants to have a productive negotiation, both with Putin and with Zelensky.”
The WSJ also asked if Ukraine joining NATO and the possibility of U.S. troop deployments had been ruled out.
“I think the president has been very clear that he doesn’t like the idea of moving Ukraine into NATO. He’s been very clear about that. I also think the president is very clear that whenever he walks in a negotiation, everything is on the table,” Vance replied.
The WSJ has not responded to requests for comment.
