JD Vance claims that Donald Trump opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion, while Joe Biden supported it

Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance claimed in a speech given at the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC) that former President Donald Trump was opposed to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq prior to its occurrence while President Joe Biden was not.

Verdict: Misleading 

While Trump made various comments about the war in 2003, it does not appear he made statements of opposition against the Iraq War until a 2004 interview with Esquire. When questioned if he supported invading Iraq by Howard Stern in 2002, Trump said “I guess so.”

Fact Check:

Trump named Vance as his running mate nominee on Monday, who then called Biden an “empty vessel” and questioned the true condition of his health, according to BBC.

Vance claimed that Trump opposed the invasion of Iraq while Biden was for it.  The statement can be heard around the 9:51 timestamp of the CNBC video.

“When I was a senior in high school, that same Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq. Somehow a real estate developer from New York City by the name of Donald J. Trump was right on all of these issues while Biden was wrong,” Vance said.

It does not appear that Trump made any comments in opposition of the U.S. invading Iraq before it occurred. He was asked whether he supported invading Iraq during an interview with radio host Howard Stern on Sept. 11, 2002.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Trump replied, adding, “I wish the first time it was done correctly.” In Trump’s 2002 book “The America We Deserve,” he said “if we decide a strike against Iraq is necessary, it is madness to not carry the mission to its conclusion.” (RELATED: Does J.D. Vance’s X Bio Show Support For Israel?)

It is true that Biden supported it at the time. In 2002, Biden voted for the resolution that ended up authorizing then-president George W. Bush to begin the invasion, according to AP News. Biden falsely claimed during his 2020 presidential campaign he was a leading critic of the invasion at the time and eventually called the resolution a mistake, the outlet reported.

The Iraq War, which lasted from 2003-2011, began its first major phase when the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003, according to Britannica. In January 2003, months before the invasion, Trump appeared on Fox Business “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” where he said “Either you attack or you don’t attack.”

He also said in March 2003 that the Iraq War was a “mess.” He stated in a July 2003 interview that he would “love to see New York City” get money that is “going toward Iraq and other places…”

“I never did run [in 2000] and I probably never will run. But we’re having a lot of fun. I think the president is doing a very good job. I would love to see New York City and some of the cities and some of the states get some of the money that’s going toward Iraq and other places, because you know, they really need and it they need it badly,” Trump said.

PolitiFact did not find him explicitly opposing the war until 2004. When questioned on his comments on Iraq by CNN in 2016, Trump said he “may have” been in favor of the war. In a 2004 interview with Esquire Magazine, Trump said, “Look at the war in Iraq and the mess that we’re in. I would never have handled it that way.”

Check Your Fact reached out to spokespeople for Vance and Trump for comment and will update this piece accordingly if one is received from either source.