WHITE HOUSE EXPLAINS SHIP OF STATE CANNOT BE TURNED OVERNIGHT; VANCE ADDS THAT VOTERS SHOULD NOT ELECT WHOEVER WAS STEERING NEAR THE ICEBERG
WASHINGTON — The White House said Wednesday that the ship of state, which the administration took over in January 2025 and has been turning ever since, cannot be turned overnight, and that Vice President JD Vance’s instruction to voters not to elect “the people who made the problem” referred to people other than the ones currently performing the turn.
At a rally in Hendersonville, North Carolina, on Monday, Vance told voters: “Vote for the people who have solutions to lower the cost of gas; don’t vote for the people who made the problem to begin with.”
Asked Wednesday how that advice squared with the administration’s own position at the helm, a senior White House official produced a diagram of a turning radius. “A vessel of this size does not turn on a dime,” the official said. “You cannot turn the Titanic around overnight. Everybody knows this.” The official said the administration was on night 638 of the turn, that the turn was proceeding beautifully, and that many people were saying it was the most beautiful turn in the history of the sea.
The iceberg, the White House confirmed, was already there when the administration took the helm in January 2025. This was offered as a defense. “We did not put the iceberg there,” the official said. “We inherited the iceberg. Previous administrations saw the iceberg and did nothing about the iceberg. We are the first administration in history to turn toward the iceberg this slowly.”
A maritime historian, asked to assess the timeline, noted that the Titanic, upon sighting its iceberg in April 1912, began its turn within seconds and completed enough of it to take the blow along the side rather than head-on. “Thirty-seven seconds was considered slow,” the historian said. “It was, at the time, the whole problem.” The White House said the historian’s invitation to future briefings was under review.
The Vice President, who served in the Marine Corps and has therefore been on ships, elaborated on the distinction Wednesday. The people who made the problem, Vance explained, are principally the people who keep drawing attention to the iceberg. “Every time somebody points at the iceberg, the turn gets harder,” he said. “The pointing is a kind of making.”
Passengers in the lower decks who reported cold water at ankle height have been advised that the water is a pre-existing condition, that it came with the ship, and that patience is expected while the turn completes. A spokesman for the vessel said the water had been measured in sections, the way you measure any water, and that reports of its depth had been greatly exaggerated by people standing in it.
The lookouts, the White House said, have been reassigned to positions where they cannot see the iceberg, in order to reduce alarm on the bridge. “Morale is part of navigation,” the official said.
By Wednesday afternoon, the White House said the turn would be completed at a future date, and that when it was, the iceberg would be behind the ship. “Don’t vote for the people who made the problem,” the Vice President repeated, from the wheelhouse.
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