Vice President J.D. Vance just committed the establishment's cardinal sin: he refused to endorse a foreign leader for office, and in doing so, he reasserted a principle this country was founded on—American politicians answer to American voters, not to Tel Aviv.
Vance told journalist Mark Halperin aboard Air Force Two Monday that he would not endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel's elections later this month. "I endorse American candidates, and that's where I'm focused on is the midterm," Vance said. "I'm not getting involved in Israeli elections."
That's not isolationism. That's sovereignty. And the shrieking it provoked tells you everything about who believes American officials owe their first loyalty abroad.
President Trump took the opposite tack, offering Netanyahu his "full endorsement" on Truth Social Sunday and warning that if Israel elects "anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so." The implication was clear: endorse the foreign leader, or risk being dragged into another war. But that framing inverts the actual danger. Netanyahu himself told Fox News host Mark Levin that his re-election priority would be to "achieve the complete elimination of the Iranian threat to Israel, to America, and to the world," adding: "Let's complete the job." Complete the job sounds a lot like open-ended commitment—exactly the kind of entangling alliance the Founders warned against.
The Daily Caller framed Vance's refusal as a split with Trump, which it is. But the real split is between two visions of the American office. One says the vice president should weigh in on foreign elections as a matter of course. The other says the vice president's job is to represent Ohio—and now America—not Likud. Vance put it plainly: "I'm not anti-endorsing him. I'm not pro-endorsing him. I'm not getting involved in Israeli elections." Neutral is not hostile, no matter how hard the lobby insists otherwise.
Notably, Vance isn't universally opposed to engaging abroad—he campaigned with Hungary's Viktor Orban before that nation's April election, but clarified the U.S. would "work with whoever wins." That's diplomacy. Endorsing a specific foreign candidate is something else: it's a loyalty oath to a foreign political faction, underwritten by American prestige.
Meanwhile, back in the country Vance actually serves, Pete Buttigieg is endorsing 11 Democratic candidates in Michigan's state legislative races—American elections, American voters, American interests. MLive reported that Buttigieg, now a Traverse City resident and prospective 2028 contender, has been "one of the most prolific midterm campaigners" this cycle. Whatever you think of Buttigieg's politics, at least he's stumping for his own countrymen. That's the baseline. Vance simply applied it to foreign races too.
The question isn't why Vance won't endorse Netanyahu. The question is why any American official would think they should.
