President Donald Trump on Thursday said he asked Vice President JD Vance to focus on alleged corruption and crime in Democratic-run states and cities while saying he is no longer seeking a deal with Iran to end the war.
States with Democratic leadership “are all poorly run, corrupt disasters,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Billions of Dollars is being stolen each and every month. Our Budget could be quickly BALANCED with the correction of this large scale criminal activity.”
Earlier this year, Vance was tapped to head a White House anti-fraud task force that has sought to root out what the administration has deemed “widespread fraud, waste, and abuse.” The vice president provided an update on his efforts last month, including actions taken against major companies that use H-1B visas to hire immigrant workers.
In August, Vance said that the government had identified around $230 billion in fraud and prevented $56 billion in fraudulent payments from being sent out, calling on Congress to codify anti-fraud efforts spearheaded by his office into law.
Trump, in his social media post, also made reference to the ongoing U.S.–Iran conflict, which erupted in February and has been simmering for months amid a U.S. military blockade against the country.
“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!” he wrote, without providing more details.
The Republican Party suffered significant losses in last week’s midterm elections, including in multiple states where the GOP was projected to win. In a post on the day after the elections, Vance, who had taken on a role in trying to resolve the conflict with Iran earlier this year, questioned whether it was worth the cost and blamed the Iran war for Republicans’ election losses as well as United States’ relationship with Israel, and cost of living and inflation, adding that voters did not feel Republicans were putting America first.
“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so,” the vice president wrote. “Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”
Trump during a press conference on Monday said that the United States would not likely launch additional military action against Iran, stressing that Tehran’s military forces are “effectively over.”
“They’re talking to us, and they’re talking very politely,” he said. “And we’ll see what happens. But there’s a good chance that that could get ended.”
Throughout the conflict, Iran has launched attacks on or threatened tanker ships attempting to head through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway that allows for the passage of roughly a fifth of the world’s traded oil, causing a spike in energy and gas prices.
Iran on Thursday claimed that two oil tankers traveling in the strait came to a halt after an explosion, state-run media outlet Tasnim News Agency reported.
The tankers “encountered an incident while transiting this prohibited path, resulting in a massive explosion that brought them to a standstill,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said.
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