I wanted to share a few more thoughts on the current ceasefire and negotiations between the United States and Iran. As I noted earlier, there’s something so rich about sending JD Vance to lead the negotiations since the vice president has bent over backwards to signal to everyone who will listen (or write stories) that he was absolutely, positively against the war in the first place. President Trump has sent Vance to conduct and really own negotiations that almost certainly wouldn’t go well for the United States.

This cannot be an accident.

I started this post before the news broke that the first attempt at negotiations had broken down or, at least for now, had failed. That news just tightened the box into which Trump placed Vance. If the war resumes, Vance owns that continuation because he walked away from the negotiating table. It’s almost as though he gave the original order. If the negotiations fail, that’s on Vance too.

So where are we now?

There may never be a Trump quote this perfect, this good: “Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime…”

Savor it.

We have a new Cafe piece from an expert on the country’s authoritarian movement.

The defeat of Viktor Orbán is a big, big deal. He’s not only a core symbol of the global authoritarian movement. His regime was also its laboratory, its rallying point and a source of funding, a location to operate from. It’s important to note that he was defeated by what is essentially a center-right party, led by a defector from Orbán’s party. But from appearances, at least, it’s a center-right party that plans to operate within the structures of civic democracy. I wanted to note that, perhaps in spite of himself, Orbán, bad as he is, managed to again illustrate just what a weak and fraudulent man Donald Trump is. He managed to do what Trump has never been able to do: concede defeat.

This is a big and consequential defeat for global Team Strongman.

I’m no Trumper. I hate what they represent. But I can occasionally appreciate their approach to ritually humiliating their own. In this vein, it’s sort of a nice touch that they’ve made JD Vance — who’s been leaking to basically every news outlet that will listen that he was 100% against this war and it’s totally not his fault — own it outright, wrap himself in it really, in Pakistan.

Chef’s kiss, as they say.