President says talks aren't needed, wants to target 'Democrat run Cities and States'
By Natalie Andrews and Alexander Ward
WASHINGTON -- President Trump said Thursday that the U.S. didn't need a deal with Iran and would prefer Vice President JD Vance, who has taken the lead in negotiations, work on investigating American cities run by Democrats.
"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 posted 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!"
The move comes as Vance had opened a communications channel with Mohsen Rezaei, the hard-line secretary of Iran's top security body, and considered face-to-face talks with him. U.S. officials were at the early stages of discussing in-person meetings aimed at ending the conflict, which has led to higher prices for fuel and consumer goods.
Trump's move is a sudden reversal. In recent days, the president had told top aides and counterparts that he was open to Vance restarting talks with Iran and had empowered him to negotiate.
A spokesman for Vance didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's post.
Vance had been the administration's top Iran negotiator for months, but his role took on more urgency after the vice president blamed the war for Republicans' disastrous midterms performance. Even before the conflict began, Vance argued internally that the U.S. should find a diplomatic solution to rid Iran of its nuclear program instead of joining Israel in an all-out bombing campaign.
Trump's announcement jumbles his current Iran strategy, which has already changed course several times since first launching the war in February. In recent days, he was considering three options: resuming airstrikes, maintaining the blockade on Iranian trade, or making a deal. He chose to tighten the blockade while allowing Vance to pursue an agreement to end the war.
But the president, who has claimed victory against Iran many times, for now seems willing to continue the military operation indefinitely without a diplomatic process in place.
"We won," Trump said Wednesday during a Veterans Day address. "Now the question is when we want to end. We must have a total victory, not a 93% victory. It's going to be total."
Vance also has led an antifraud corruption task force for the administration after being selected earlier this year by Trump to do so. He has investigated allegations of fraud in the immigration and healthcare systems. The task force said it has uncovered hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud in the government.
Trump's push to investigate corruption in Democratic-run states and cities comes as Democrats are poised to take control of the House and Senate in the next Congress.
The Democrats have put Trump at the center of their allegations of corruption, pointing to the extraordinary growth of his wealth since he took office, including earning $1.4 billion last year from crypto ventures. They also have promised to launch investigations into his efforts to get large companies to cut checks for Trump's projects such as his White House ballroom.