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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Surge, a very special Friday Federal Holiday edition that makes a great reading companion to your steak-and-sauerkraut breakfast.

The United States and Iran have agreed at last on a framework for a deal to end the war, a tremendous success for Trump if it works and a total failure for J.D. Vance if it doesn’t. We also check in on some of this week’s primary results—in which a prominent Trump endorsee lost—and consider Trump’s gleaming gunk pool on the National Mall.

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Ready to perform his vice presidential duties: Eating the blame.

The release of the administration’s memorandum of understanding with Iran was greeted with sharp pushback from Iran hawks. We don’t get it: Wasn’t it actually pretty nice of the Iranians to offer a conditional surrender after defeating the U.S. in the war? If finalized, the MOU would offer Iran $300 billion for reconstruction, unfrozen funds, the cessation of sanctions, and more in exchange for a down-blending of their existing nuclear material and a return to the status quo ante in the Strait of Hormuz. This led GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy to describe the Iran war as “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”

But while Cassidy, who lost his primary, has the political space to voice his true feelings, most other Republicans are still too in thrall to Trump to say that he biffed it. Fortunately, there’s a constitutional position that serves as a political blame receptacle: the vice president. J.D.Vance has served point on these negotiations, and should the final deal even closely resemble the MOU, he’s going to hear about it. South Carolina Sen.Lindsey Graham has put Vance on notice, and other GOP senators say they are eager to hear him defend the deal. On the other hand, Vance already has been selling the deal in anti-war terms as he seeks to shore up ties with elements of the MAGA coalition turned off by Trump’s militarism.

Take it from Trump himself. At the G7 summit this week, Trump said of the deal, “If it works out, I’m going to take the credit. If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming J.D. You better be careful, J.D. He’s gonna turn his plane around and get the hell out of here.” He said this in a joking, busting-his-chops way. (Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood stone-faced behind Trump’s shoulder.) But rest assured, he will say it in a quite serious way if the time comes. Anyway, congrats to the veep on his book, for which he is on a publicity tour while also negotiating the end of a........

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