Just hours after former President Donald Trump acknowledged his vice president’s mixed feelings about the ongoing conflict with Iran, JD Vance participated in the solemn transfer of the seventh US service member lost in the war.
Vance attended the ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to honor Army Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, a 26-year-old from Glendale, Kentucky, who died during an attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Alongside Pete Hegseth and senior military officials, Vance saluted as the flag-draped transfer case was respectfully moved from the aircraft to a waiting vehicle.
Earlier on Monday, Trump mentioned that Vance held a slightly different philosophical viewpoint at the beginning of the Iran conflict, though he downplayed any suggestion of discord between them.
A veteran of the US war in Iraq, Vance has generally stayed out of the public eye and media since the US initiated strikes on Tehran, despite Trump’s acknowledgment of their initial differences.
“We get along very well on this,” Trump told reporters, noting, “He was, I would say, philosophically a little bit different than me. I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going, but he was quite enthusiastic.”
Trump quickly added: ‘But I thought it was something we had to do. I didn’t feel we had a choice.’
JD Vance (pictured left) oversaw the dignified transfer of the seventh US service member to die in the Iran war after Donald Trump admitted his vice president is ‘less enthusiastic’ about the conflict
Vance was at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for Army Sgt Benjamin N Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky
The dignified transfer is considered one of the most somber duties of any commander in chief.
During his first term, Trump said bearing witness to the transfer was ‘the toughest thing I have to do’ as president.
‘I want to just start on a slightly somber note here, because on a personal level, I was honored to be able to participate in the dignified transfer of six American soldiers who were killed overseas in this conflict with Iran. And I had never done that before,’ Vance began.
He then asked for prayers for the ‘seventh soul’ lost and for the families of all the fallen heroes.
Pennington was assigned to the 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade of the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command based at Fort Carson, Colorado.
The unit’s mission focused on ‘missile warning, GPS, and long-haul satellite communications,’ according to their website.
Pennington entered the service as a unit supply specialist and was assigned to the Space and Missile Command on June 10, 2025, the Army said in a release.
Among his awards and decorations were the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon.
Members of the military carry the transfer case during a dignified transfer of the remains of Sgt Pennington
‘We get along very well on this,’ Trump told reporters when pressed on his discussions with Vice President JD Vance. ‘He was, I would say, philosophically a little bit different than me. I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going, but he was quite enthusiastic’
The vice president’s X account has only had a few posts since the Iran war began
Vance has long cautioned that his time in Iraq with the Marines informed his views that the US should not promote wars abroad. Vance even penned a 2023 op-ed explaining Trump’s best foreign policy was ‘not starting any wars.’
The vice president seems to have been posting less on X amid the war, some social media critics have noted. He has yet to refer to it as a war, as the president has, opting instead for ‘conflict’ or ‘operation,’ on his typically busy account.
Vance is considered to be the president’s most influential advisor in his inner circle, according to a new exclusive Daily Mail/JL Partners poll of registered voters.
Nineteen percent of respondents said the vice president is the most influential member of Trump’s inner circle.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was second with 12 percent, followed by Donald Trump Jr. and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller tied for third place.
The vice president previously stressed on Fox News earlier this month how the president would not let the Iran war be a repeat of the US operations in Iraq or Afghanistan.
‘There’s just no way that Donald Trump is going to allow this country to get into a multi-year conflict with no clear end in sight and no clear objective,’ Vance said.
‘He’s defined that objective as Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and has to commit long-term to never trying to rebuild the nuclear capability. It’s pretty clear. It’s pretty simple, and I think that means that we’re not going to get into the problems that we’ve had with Iraq and Afghanistan,’ Vance told Fox.
The president said Monday that he and the VP differ ‘philosophically’ on Iran
Trump shared on Monday that the US would not be letting up in its offensive against the Islamic Republic.
‘If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,’ Trump posted on social media.
‘We are the ones who will determine the end of the war,’ Iran’s Revolutionary Guard military force said in a statement.’
During his televised press conference, the president said that Iran has ‘no air force,’ and without radar, telecommunications, anti-aircraft systems, and most importantly, leadership.
Iran’s military drone capacity is down to 25 percent and is soon expected to go to zero while the country’s missiles are mostly destroyed, he added.
When Trump was asked how soon the battle with Iran would end, he declined to say within the week, only offering, ‘soon.’
