Vance faces a classic bind: Loyalty to US President Donald Trump ties him to a presidency that is bound to fail, yet distancing himself invites charges of disloyalty.

Either course imperils his prospects of becoming the next US president.

His latest assignment as chief negotiator with Iran has only compounded this predicament.

Trump’s Machiavellian stratagem When a vice president is dispatched to negotiate with a long-standing adversary like Iran, the assignment appears to be a mark of trust and distinction.

It signals proximity to power, confidence from the top, and a serious, purposeful mandate to deliver results.

Yet such assignments may conceal a harsher reality.

What looks like a substantive advancement can, in fact, constitute a carefully constructed liability.

In essence, Trump has handed Vance a classic poisoned chalice: the ancient stratagem of delegating a notoriously intractable, high-stakes problem to a subordinate so that success can be claimed from above while failure is absorbed below.

In this metaphor, the chalice signifies honor and elevation, while the poison represents the hidden risk of failure and blame embedded within the role.

The tactic is exemplified in Niccolò Machiavelli’s advice that a prince should reserve gratifying tasks for himself, while assigning odious measures to his ministers so that blame falls on them while he retains favor.

The maneuver recalls Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, in deploying, and later discarding, subordinate figures such as Nikolai Yezhov, grimly nicknamed the “Poison Dwarf.” The head of the Soviet secret police (NKVD) was entrusted with carrying out the Great Purge before being purged himself – the executor of the system rendered its sacrificial victim, literally retouched out of official history.

The pattern is readily discernible: Execution of perilous, invidious tasks is delegated downward while responsibility is ultimately disowned above and reserved for those who discharge them.

In like manner, Colin Powell’s United Nations case for war in Iraq, grounded in subsequently discredited claims of weapons of mass destruction, illustrates how flawed, high-stakes missions can become inextricably bound to those tasked with executing them.

If one bears the problem alone, one risks becoming its embodiment.

The image of the US Secretary of State holding up a small model vial to illustrate the alleged massive threat – suggesting that even a tiny amount of anthrax could kill thousands – has become indelibly etched in the public memory.

The vial was a symbol designed to lend certainty to uncertain intelligence, powerful precisely because it rendered an abstract threat both immediate and real.

In the public mind, the vivid prop substituted for proof, only to return and define Powell himself – a striking case of vividness backfiring by turning against its proponent.

Vance risks being cast as the public face of another disaster.

In April 2026, the US vice president was dispatched to lead negotiations with Iran – thrown into a piranha pool, as it were – despite deep structural deadlock, maximal demands on both sides, and limited leverage.

After 21 hours of talks, no deal emerged, corroborating that the VP was operating in a space where outcomes were largely beyond his control.

Vance’s poisoned chalice The danger for Vance in taking on the role of chief negotiator with Iran is not merely diplomatic failure.

It is something more subtle and more perilous: reputational entrapment.

The vice president risks becoming not only the highly visible public face of a situation in which success is structurally constrained – and thus unlikely from the outset – but also the focal point for subsequent blame.

This embodies precisely the logic of the....