Vice President JD Vance has deleted a social media post referencing the Armenian Genocide, in what critics have described as an awkward retreat.
After attending the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games opening ceremony on Friday, Vance traveled to Armenia as part of a high-profile trip framed as support for a U.S.-brokered effort to end the country’s long-running conflict with Azerbaijan. During the visit, Vance and his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance, laid a wreath at a memorial honoring victims of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians.
In a post that was later removed, Vance wrote that they were “at the Armenian Genocide memorial to honor the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide.” The wording stood out because Trump has historically avoided calling the systematic killing of Armenians a “genocide,” a term Turkey—an important U.S. ally—disputes.
The post disappeared for several hours before Vance’s press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, shared photos and videos of the visit from her own account with a more neutral caption, saying the vice president and second lady had gone to “lay flowers at the eternal flame and sign the guest book on the final day of their visit to Armenia.”
A spokesperson told reporters traveling with the Vances that the vice president’s social media account is managed by staff and is primarily used to share images and videos of his official activities. An official said the original post was made in error by a staffer who was not part of the delegation.
Vance’s trip also included meetings with Armenian leaders, and he signed a cooperative civil nuclear agreement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as the U.S. seeks to deepen ties with Armenia, which has historically been closely aligned with Russia.
The Armenian Genocide occurred during World War I, as the Ottoman Empire fought alongside Germany and the Central Powers. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that roughly 1.5 million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire before the violence, and that “at least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million” Armenians were killed.
The United States formally acknowledged the Armenian Genocide in 2021 under President Biden, following a congressional resolution passed in 2019. That recognition followed decades in which U.S. administrations often avoided the term amid concerns about relations with Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman Empire. Turkey remains a strategically important U.S. partner due to its geography and regional influence, but it continues to deny that the Armenian Genocide occurred.
Vance’s arrival in Armenia followed a tense reception in Italy. Despite guidance reportedly issued to attendees at the Olympics opening ceremony not to boo him, Vance was jeered when he appeared on the venue’s big screen. EU diplomat Kaja Kallas later suggested the reaction reflected broader frustration in Europe, saying, “Well, I guess we have heard a lot of not-so-nice words from the United States regarding Europe.”
