Vice President JD Vance appears to be aggressively positioning himself as the heir apparent to the MAGA movement by taking an isolationist stance on Russia's war in Ukraine, a move that President Donald Trump keeps undermining, according to one analyst.

The vice president has publicly lauded Trump's actions to end the war in Ukraine, going so far as to say Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. He has also sharply criticized members of his own party for not supporting the contentious 28-point peace plan that has been proposed to the Ukrainians, arguing in a recent post on X that the "beltway GOP" would prefer to see the four-year war between Russia and Ukraine continue rather than address any of the issues Trump faces at home.

However, Trump continues to undercut Vance by spending time and political capital on international issues like the war in Ukraine, as well as other affairs. For instance, Trump dispatched army secretary Dan Driscoll, whom he's referred to as "the drone guy,'" to Ukraine to learn how America can modernize its military drone system.

Journalist Michael Weiss discussed this dynamic on a new episode of "The Bulwark Podcast" with host Tim Miller.

"It's just embarrassing," Weiss said. "This is the other kind of subtext of this thing. JD Vance's guy is there to tell Ukrainians, here are the terms of your surrender, and oh, by the way, teach us how to fight a war because we suck."