Trump sidelines his deputy Vance from the Iran file: "We don't need a deal"

US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday, November 12, that he wants his vice president, JD Vance, to stay away from the diplomatic negotiations aimed at ending the war with Iran, and to turn his attention entirely to crime and corruption files in Democratic states.

Trump published his decision via the Truth Social platform, writing explicitly: "We don't need a deal with Iran. Those days are behind us," citing what he described as the sufficiency of the economic and military tools available to pressure Tehran.

The decision came nine days after Vance's remarks on the X platform, in which he blamed the war for the Republicans' defeat in the midterm congressional elections held on November 3, writing: "The reason for our loss is the war," and calling for a frank discussion about the cost of losing the Senate majority.

Vance had assumed a central role in the diplomatic efforts over the past months; in April he chaired talks with Iranian officials in Pakistan, and in recent months he returned to communicating with Qatari and Pakistani mediators. The Wall Street Journal revealed on November 11 that Vance was studying the possibility of holding a direct meeting with a senior Iranian security official, before Trump intervened the following day and eliminated the need for that track.

Trump acknowledged that the war contributed to raising energy prices and intensified the Republicans' electoral losses, but he insisted that the military intervention was necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. The nature of Vance's role in policy toward Iran in the future remains undetermined, and Trump's decision does not mean cutting off all channels of American diplomatic communication with Tehran.