President Donald Trump on Thursday directed Vice President JD Vance to shift his focus away from the Iran war and instead devote himself to fighting what the president says is corruption and crime in Democratic-controlled cities and states.
Vance, who served as the lead negotiator for a short-lived truce in the eight-month old war, has been blunt in blaming the war — and the economic reverberations it has caused — for Republicans' sweeping losses in last week's midterm elections in the United States.
But Trump brusquely told the vice president in a social media post Thursday to shift his energies away from the Iran war to what he argues is a more pressing — and perhaps more politically salient — issue after Republicans were trounced at the polls.
“We don’t need a deal with Iran,” Trump said in the post. “Those days have long since passed. We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!”
Trump earlier this week said he believed the war “militarily is effectively over,” and appeared to double down on that message by pointedly directing Vance “to focus his complete and total attention” on his anti-fraud campaign.
Democrats have promised intense oversight of Trump's business dealings and other targets when they take control of Congress in January after voters identified corruption as one of their top concerns. Trump's post about Vance and the Iran war was, in part, responding to a flurry of reports about Democrats' plans.
But it also came after The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday evening that Vance was weighing engaging in a new round of direct talks with a senior Iranian official.
The vice president's office did not respond to a request for comment.
The White House press office, in an email, responded to a query by highlighting that Trump made clear in his post that he sees no need to negotiate with Iran.
Vance blamed Trump's Iran war for midterm losses
Vance, who had long advocated for restraint in US military interventions overseas, was lukewarm in his defense of the conflict after Trump launched it and became the face of an unsuccessful attempt to end the fighting when he headed up negotiations over the summer.
Following the Nov. 3 losses, Vance wrote a lengthy post on X in which he didn't mince words about the political impact of the conflict.
“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," Vance said. “Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.”
The vice president is considering whether to launch a 2028 run for the White House. Voter dissatisfaction with Trump's handling of the war could weigh down those ambitions.
The president has yet to endorse a successor for the 2028 race. In a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, the president said he “may or may not get involved” in offering an endorsement.
Trump earlier this week said that he believed that mediation efforts led by Qatar are making progress and that it was unlikely he would need to make good on earlier threats to restart the full-scale bombardment of Iran after he was past the midterm elections.
The president said in an interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” on Thursday that he stood ready to restart strikes if necessary. “If something doesn’t work out, I would not hesitate,” he said.
Separately, in an interview with commentator Stephen A. Smith, Trump suggested he hasn't ruled out carrying out strikes on Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, a facility linked to Iran's nuclear program, if the US detects signs of activity at the facility.
