President Trump on Thursday said he pulled Vice President J.D. Vance away from engaging in any potential peace deals with Iran.
The president said he would rather see Mr. Vance investigate fraud in Democratic-led states and cities.
“We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed,” Mr. Trump said on social media. “We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!”
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Mr. Trump’s move comes not long after Mr. Vance was considering meeting with a top Iranian security official, Mohsen Rezaei, The Wall Street Journal reported, and took a larger role in diplomacy with Iran than special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
The initial strikes by the U.S. against Iran that took out the Islamic regime’s nuclear capabilities and military vessels were popular among Republican voters, but Mr. Trump eventually pulled back to allow for peace negotiations last June.
The June Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Iran was a 14-point framework negotiated by Mr. Vance and brokered by Pakistan to temporarily pause fighting and open a 60-day window for peace talks, but it ultimately collapsed in July 2026.
The Washington Times asked Mr. Trump last weekend who convinced him to pull back after the initial strikes in Iran and he responded, “Nobody. We hit Iran very hard.”
“Look, if we didn’t hit Iran, you wouldn’t have Israel today. Israel would be gone; it would have been wiped off the face of the earth, and they know it.”
He said, “Iran just with regular missiles started hitting Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE. Nobody thought that was going to happen.”
The Washington Times reached out to Mr. Vance’s office for a response.
The vice president, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, pointed to the Iran war as the main reason Republicans lost heavily in the midterms.
“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Mr. Vance wrote in a protracted social media post a day after the election.
“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so,” he wrote. “Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.”
Mr. Trump told reporters last weekend that Mr. Vance’s comments about why he thought the election was lost have not affected their relationship, but that many conservatives didn’t like what the vice president said.
“He was right,” the president said. “Other than one thing, he should have made one other statement. One statement that I think is very important: ’If you had it to do it again, would you do it again?’ The answer is yes.”
He added,”I can tell you, if I had it to do again, this historically, history will go down as one of the best things we ever did.”
While Mr. Vance had been active in negotiations with Iranian leadership, he has also been spearheading the anti-fraud task force.
“I have asked Vice President Vance to focus his complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States throughout the U.S.,” Mr. Trump said.
“The Blue States, such as Minnesota, California, Illinois, and many more, are all poorly run, corrupt disasters. Billions of Dollars [are] being stolen each and every month.”
He added, “Our Budget could be quickly BALANCED with the correction of this large scale criminal activity. CORRUPTION is in the Democrat Leadership’s blood!”
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