The Wall Street Journal misrepresented the words of Vice President J.D. Vance in a Friday headline that suggested he made threats to use military and economic force to get Russia to agree to a deal that would end the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The WSJ interviewed Vance for its Friday piece about ongoing efforts to wind down the Russia-Ukraine war, headlined “Vance Wields Threat of Sanctions, Military Action to Push Putin Into Ukraine Deal.” However, the vice president did not explicitly threaten Russia with military actions or sanctions, instead stating generally that all options are on the table for President Donald Trump as he seeks to negotiate an end to the war, according to portions of the interview transcript released by Vance’s staff and the publication.
“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,” reads the opening paragraph to the WSJ’s story. A tweet from the outlet’s official account promoting the story stated 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 running “pure fake news” and provided images of relevant parts of the interview transcript in a Friday post to X.
“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 sections of transcript shared by Martin indicate that Vance did not make statements nearly as strong as the WSJ made them out to be. Vance himself called out the WSJ for its “absurd, but not surprising” portrayal of his words, criticizing the paper as a supporter of deploying American soldiers in foreign wars.
“Is there a sense as to what the stick is for Putin? I mean, obviously any kind of deal would have to entail an implicit threat that you have to stick to this or else you have to even sign on the dotted line. Is there any pressure that you’re thinking of?” the WSJ asked Vance, per the transcript shared by Martin.
“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,” Vance said in response.
The WSJ also asked Vance to clarify what options may be under consideration, specifically inquiring if Ukraine joining NATO and U.S. troops deploying to Ukraine have 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 said.
On Friday afternoon, the WSJ published the full transcript of the Vance interview, confirming that the outlet’s portrayal of Vance’s comments about resolving the Russia-Ukraine war was misleading.
Representatives for the WSJ did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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