Vice President JD Vance was ruthlessly mocked online for incorrectly claiming that World War II ended with ‘negotiations’.
The vice president appeared on MSNBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker on Sunday, where the discussion turned to President Donald Trump’s plan to conclude the war in Ukraine.
Vance clarified that Trump aims to facilitate talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He inaccurately remarked, ‘When you examine World War II, World War I, or any major historical conflict, they each conclude with negotiations,’ said the vice president.
Numerous online commentators quickly corrected that World War II didn’t finish through negotiations between the Allies and the Axis but rather ended in 1945 with the total surrender of Germany and Japan.
‘It concerns me that the vice president and potential Republican nominee for 2028 lacks understanding, unaware that WWII concluded on the battlefield with the Allies demanding an unconditional surrender,’ an X user commented as the clip gained attention.
Another social media user remarked, ‘Amazingly in the clip, JD Vance suggests the US didn’t win World War II, implying we negotiated with Germany or Japan to end the war. He must also believe Carthage wasn’t defeated by Rome.’
Vice President JD Vance incorrectly stated on Sunday that World War II ended with ‘negotiations’
He was discussing President Donald Trump’s strategy to end the war in Ukraine with MSNBC’s Kristen Welker when he made the remark
Vance was ruthlessly mocked for the incorrect statement on X
‘I mean the amount of ignorant bulls**** that this intellectual zero is pushing is scary.’
Another X user who identified himself as a history professor also noted that the Axis Powers only surrendered after ‘Hitler killed himself in a bunker, Mussolini was executed and Germany and Japan were occupied’.
Others also argued that Vance’s remarks erases the sacrifice American soldiers made, with one user claiming it glosses over ‘the brutal reality of unconditional surrender after Allied bombs and battles crushed the Axis’.
‘Stop rewriting history to push your appeasement agenda.’
A fifth X user also expressed her relief that ‘we didn’t have someone with the mindset of JD Vance in charge during WWII’.
‘If we did, Hitler would have ended up with half of Europe.’
As criticism of Vance’s remarks continued, the clip from Meet the Press was temporarily fact-checked with a community note.
But others rushed to defend the vice president, with one X user claiming that ‘through negotiations [the Axis] agreed to surrender and we agreed to accept their surrender’.
‘What is hard to understand about that?’
Many online noted that the Axis Powers surrendered to the Allied Powers to end World War II in 1945 following Allied victories
In the interview on Sunday, Vance said the president simply wants Putin and Zelensky to ‘come to some agreement’.
‘If Ukrainians are willing to say something on territory that brings the conflict to a close, we’re not going to stop them,’ he explained. ‘We’re also not going to force them because it’s not our country.
‘All he can do is open the door and ask them to negotiate in good faith,’ the vice president said of Trump.
His remarks came just days after the president told reporters he was hoping to set up a meeting between the two world leaders soon.
Trump said it would become clear within the next ‘two weeks’ whether or not the meeting would happen, leaning on a familiar timetable he’s used repeatedly during his second term.
‘I think over the next two weeks, we’re going to find out which way it’s going to go,’ he said. ‘And, I better be very happy.’
The US president also threatened ‘massive sanctions’ or ‘massive tariffs’ if the planned meeting did not happen – a pledge he has promised before and failed to deliver on. He also left open the possibility of doing nothing at all.
President Trump has been meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to mediate negotiations between the two countries
Trump is now hoping Putin will meet with Zelensky (pictured with Trump last week) soon
But the president has become increasingly frustrated with Russia’s incessant bombing of Ukraine, and expressed his disapproval on Friday that an American factory in Ukraine was struck by Russian forces
‘I told him I’m not happy about it. I’m not happy about anything having to do with that war,’ Trump said he told Putin.
He then repeated his claim that the war would have ‘never happened’ if he was president.
‘This was caused by stupid people that fought,’ he said, adding that ‘Vladimir knew very strongly that we wouldn’t have stood for it’.
