President Donald Trump praised Lebanese President Joseph Aoun Tuesday in the Oval Office and gave reporters an update on the Iran war and negotiations — “they’re desperate to meet” with the United States, he said of Iranian negotiators. Trump also addressed peace talks between Lebanon and Israel and said he’s considering increasing pressure on Israel to remove troops from Lebanon.
[NOTE: Since shortly after the U.S. and Israel initiated military attacks in Iran in February, there have also been ongoing hostilities in Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.]
President Trump meets the Lebanese President. As an Israeli who has lived under the shadow of Hezbollah rockets and missiles for decades, I believe we are closer than ever to peace with Lebanon, if Hezbollah is removed. Nothing would make me happier.
pic.twitter.com/veg9SiCZYA— Vivid.
(@VividProwess) July 21, 2026
Minutes before Trump’s meeting with Aoun, former Vice President Mike Pence appeared on CNN and said, “I think we’re in a moment right now where we’ve got to allow the Armed Forces of the United States to finish a war that didn’t start four months ago. This war started 47 years ago.”
When you go to war you go to war to win. Iran started this war 47 years ago.
We’re in a moment right now where we have got to allow the Armed Forces of the United States and Israel to finish a war that we did not start. pic.twitter.com/uv1fqpvvMb
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) July 21, 2026
Pence mentioned that his brother was a Marine stationed in Beirut in 1983, before a bomb destroyed the U.S. Marine barracks at the Beirut International Airport and killed 241 American service members. “That’s when this war started,” Pence said. (The former Vice President’s brother, Greg Pence, was not at the airport that day, as his battalion left the country just days before the attack.)
Sharing the CNN clip, Pence wrote: “We’re in a moment right now where we have got to allow the Armed Forces of the United States and Israel to finish a war that we did not start.”
[NOTE: In January 2024, Pence visited Israel and sparked controversy by signing his name on Israeli artillery shells. A few months later, GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley also signed artillery shells during a visit to Israel and wrote “Finish them! America [heart] Israel always, Nikki Haley.”]