The “dumb/smart” video is cringeworthy now, especially since Vance is clearly using kindergarten vocabulary so that Trump, who is seated behind the Resolute Desk next to him, will understand the flattery. But it will look much worse in the future, once all doubt that this war is a massive failure has been removed and the vice president is asked if he still has faith in Trump’s towering intellect.

Plenty of political commentators have noted that, by defending Trump’s war with Iran, Vance looks like a grasping phony, which could hurt his presidential ambitions in 2028. But it’s even worse than that for the vice president. Clips like this underscore that he is weak and, frankly, emasculated — eager to debase himself on camera for crumbs of approval from a president whose political and physical strength both seem to be rapidly waning. This is bad news for Vance, who has built his political brand by trying to appeal to the wannabe alpha-male crowd of the “manosphere,” a loose conglomerate of both secular and Christian right content creators whose bro poses and sexist politics helped propel Trump into the White House in 2024.

Vance is one of Earth’s biggest losers.