President Donald Trump says “a lot of people” were unhappy with JD Vance’s criticism of the Iran war, while challenging his vice president to answer one question after Republicans suffered a crushing defeat in the midterm elections.
Trump maintained that his relationship with Vance remains strong, despite the vice president publicly blaming the eight-month conflict for the party’s disastrous performance at the polls.
Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One for Washington, D.C., on Sunday night, Trump said Vance had avoided one crucial issue: whether he would support going to war with Iran if he were given the choice again.
Asked whether Vance’s criticism of the administration’s decisions had strained their relationship, Trump dismissed the suggestion.
“No, not at all. But a lot of people didn’t like his comments, but not me,” the president said.
Trump said Vance had been correct in his assessment except for one omission: he should have addressed whether launching the military campaign was the right decision.
“If you had to do it again, would you do it again? The answer is ‘yes,’” Trump said.
“I can tell you, if I had to do it again, historically, for history, this will go down as one of the best things we ever did because if they ever had a nuclear weapon, they would blow up the world. You know why? ’Cause they’re crazy.”
President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday night that “a lot of people” disliked JD Vance’s comments blaming the Iran war for the Republicans’ midterm defeat
Trump said his relationship with Vice President JD Vance remained strong despite their differing views of the controversial Iran war. The two are pictured in July this year
The Iran war has created a major political challenge for the Trump administration, with Vance blaming the conflict for the Republicans’ crushing election losses. Smoke and flames rise from an oil depot in Tehran after airstrikes in March
The exchange came only hours after Trump faced a similar question during a wide-ranging interview with CBS 60 Minutes, where he acknowledged that Vance’s explanation for the Republican defeat was not necessarily wrong.
During the interview, Trump appeared keen to minimize any suggestion of a split between the two men.
When correspondent Ross Douthat asked whether Trump agreed with Vance’s election analysis, including his criticism of the US relationship with Israel, the president replied: “I don’t disagree.”
Trump then returned to the question he believed Vance had left unanswered regarding the Iran war.
“The only thing I wish he would’ve said there, if he felt it—and you’d have to ask him about that—but ‘If you had to do it again, would you do it?’” Trump said.
“You know, he was part of a decision-making process, and my answer is an emphatic ‘yes’ because you can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump conceded that the decision might not deliver immediate political benefits, but argued that history would ultimately judge it favorably.
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“I think historically this will be a very good decision. Is it a good decision for today and tomorrow? Maybe not, but you know I have to go with what’s right for our country,” he said.
Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday that he did not reject Vance’s election analysis, but insisted history would vindicate the decision to attack Iran
Vance said former Trump supporters had turned against Republicans over the Iran war, rising living costs and Washington’s relationship with Israel. He is pictured in Texas last month
The president argued that allowing Iran to develop a nuclear weapon would have represented a far more serious failure.
Vance, widely viewed as a potential contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028, stunned political observers on Wednesday by directly attributing the GOP’s loss of both chambers of Congress to the war.
“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance wrote in a lengthy post on X.
The vice president pointed to polling indicating that Americans who backed Trump in 2024 had shifted away from Republicans because of the conflict, the rising cost of living and the country’s relationship with Israel.
Vance said a pollster had identified four central demands among disenchanted Trump voters: ending the war, addressing inflation, putting America First and changing the US relationship with Israel.
“Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats,” Vance wrote.
He also challenged supporters of the military operation to acknowledge what he described as its severe political cost.
“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so,” he wrote. “Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.”
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday night
Trump challenged his vice president to say whether he would support launching the Iran war again, insisting he would make the same choice
Vance’s unusually blunt assessment prompted questions about whether he was seeking to distance himself from Trump’s increasingly unpopular foreign policy before a possible presidential campaign.
Iran, for its part, has consistently said its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes, although international inspectors have expressed concerns about the country’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Diplomatic efforts have so far failed to secure a lasting resolution to the conflict.
Trump has also warned that US forces have identified dozens of Iranian infrastructure targets, including 38 bridges, that could be attacked if major hostilities resume.
American forces have continued limited military operations, including strikes on Iranian air defenses, even as efforts to revive diplomacy continue.