President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he has pulled Vice President JD Vance back from engaging in potential peace talks with Iran, saying his time would be better spent investigating alleged fraud in Democratic-run states and cities.
"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.," Trump wrote on social media. "We don't need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed. We've got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we've got their Strait!"
Trump added that Democratic-run states such as Minnesota, California and Illinois were "poorly run, corrupt disasters" and that "Billions of Dollars is being stolen each and every month," arguing that correcting the alleged fraud could quickly balance the federal budget.
Vance had been a central figure in the administration's dealings with Tehran. He helped negotiate a 14-point memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran in June that opened a 60-day window for talks to end the war, but the window passed without a deal. The memorandum collapsed weeks later when Iran attacked commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in a dispute over shipping routes.
The vice president tried to revive the diplomacy last month, sending a letter with Trump's blessing to Mohsen Rezaei, the hard-line secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Vance was considering face-to-face talks with Rezaei, a step that would have put him at the center of the peace negotiations. Reuters has not confirmed that potential meeting.
Trump's decision came two days after he said the war was "effectively over" while keeping in place a naval blockade of Iranian ports. Special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner remain the primary negotiators with Iran. Vance already chairs the administration's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which was established in March to investigate and identify fraud across the country. Vance, who is seen as a leading contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, had blamed the costly war with Iran for the Republicans' midterm election losses last week.
