Speaking during a White House Cabinet meeting as the Trump administration kept up pressure on Tehran, Vice President JD Vance said the United States had to think beyond conventional terrorism and imagine what could happen if a regime like Iran's had access to a weapon capable of killing "many, many tens of thousands of people."
At the meeting, Vance described a hypothetical attacker entering a supermarket with a vest, saying that in an ordinary bombing "a couple of people get killed," but warning that the stakes would be exponentially higher if "what's on the vest" were nuclear. The comment appeared to be part of the administration's broader effort to justify its hard line on Iran by presenting Tehran not merely as a geopolitical adversary, but as a uniquely catastrophic nuclear threat.
Vance said, "You talk about people who walk into a crowded supermarket and have a vest on, and they blow up the vest and a couple of people get killed, and that's a terrible tragedy. What happens when what's on the vest is not something that can kill a couple of people, but can kill many, many tens of thousands of people?"
Vance suggests Iran could have used nuclear suicide vests: “You talk about people who walk into a crowded supermarket and have a vest on, and they blow up the vest and a couple of people get killed, and that's a terrible tragedy. What happens when what's on the vest is not… pic.twitter.com/6HiCHhi4S9
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) March 26, 2026
Vance has repeatedly argued in recent weeks that Iran's nuclear explanations are not credible. In a March 2 interview with Fox News, he said Tehran's claims that its uranium enrichment was for civilian or medical purposes "didn't pass the smell test," pointing to underground facilities and enrichment levels that he said were inconsistent with a peaceful program. In that same appearance, Vance said President Donald Trump wanted a long-term guarantee that Iran would "never build a nuclear weapon."
The White House's rhetoric has sharpened as diplomacy remains shaky. Reuters reported Thursday that Trump urged Iran to accept a deal to end U.S. and Israeli bombings, warning that if Tehran refused, the strikes would continue. Special envoy Steve Witkoff said at the same Cabinet meeting that the administration had presented Iran with a 15-point list intended to open negotiations. However, an Iranian official told Reuters the proposal was "one-sided and unfair," while leaving the door to diplomacy open if Washington adopted a more realistic approach.
Reuters reported that a 15-point U.S. proposal had been delivered to Iran through Pakistan, and that Tehran was still reviewing it despite a sharply negative initial response. The U.S. framework reportedly includes sweeping demands: the removal of Iran's enriched uranium stockpile, a halt to uranium enrichment, limits on ballistic missile activity, and an end to support for regional allied groups.
In exchange, Washington is said to be offering significant sanctions relief and the prospect of broader diplomatic offramps. But from Tehran's point of view, those terms appear to go well beyond a ceasefire and instead amount to a far-reaching restructuring of Iran's military and nuclear posture.
At the same time, developments inside Iran have complicated the picture. Reuters also reported Thursday that Iranian hardliners have been ramping up public and private calls for the country to pursue a nuclear bomb, a notable shift from the Islamic Republic's long-standing official position that nuclear weapons were religiously forbidden. Senior Iranian figures and media tied to the Revolutionary Guards have reportedly discussed leaving the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and moving toward weaponization, even though Iran has not formally changed its doctrine.
