President Donald Trump has directed Vice President JD Vance to shift his focus away from the Iran war and instead devote himself to what the president describes as corruption and crime in Democratic-controlled cities and states. The directive came in a social media post on Thursday, after Republicans were trounced in last week's midterm elections in the United 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 conflict and the economic reverberations it has caused for the party's sweeping losses. Following the November 3 losses, he wrote a lengthy post on X arguing that anyone who considers the war worth it must accept the cost of losing the Senate for the next six years. Vance had long advocated restraint in US military interventions overseas and was lukewarm in his defence of the conflict after Trump launched it.S2

In his post, Trump wrote that "we don't need a deal with Iran" and that "those days have long since passed," adding that the US has "their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we've got their Strait." Earlier this week, Trump said he believed the war was "militarily effectively over" and pointedly directed Vance "to focus his complete and total attention" on his anti-fraud campaign. The directive followed a Wall Street Journal report that Vance was weighing a new round of direct talks with a senior Iranian official. The White House press office pointed to Trump's post as making clear he sees no need to negotiate with Iran.S2

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. Vance is reportedly considering whether to launch a 2028 run for the White House, and the shift in his assignment comes as voter dissatisfaction with Trump's handling of the war and the economy weighs on the Republican Party.S1S2