From The New Yorker · Susan B. Glasser · · 3m
Trump fires Vance from Iran talks via Truth Social
The President removes his Vice-President from Middle East negotiations in a morning social media post, escalating their public rift over the war.
In brief
The President removes his Vice-President from Middle East negotiations in a morning social media post, escalating their public rift over the war. Trump fired Vice-President Vance from Iran peace negotiations via Truth Social after Vance blamed the midterm losses on the war, deepening their split. Originally reported…
Trump rages after midterm defeat
Nine days after voters rejected Trump and Republicans, the President announced he would rather hate his enemies than go to heaven and threatened prosecution of investigating members of Congress.
Morning meltdown on Truth Social
Starting at five fifty AM on Thursday, Trump posted repeatedly about Democratic corruption, illegal immigrant caravans, and calls to prosecute the Seditious Six Democratic members of Congress.
Historic midterm defeat for Republicans
Democrats are pushing close to a fourteen-point lead in the national House popular vote, the widest margin for the Party in more than fifty years.
Vance removed from Iran portfolio
At eight oh seven AM, Trump announced he was immediately relieving Vice-President J.D.Vance of responsibility for negotiating a peace deal with Iran.Trump said he wanted Vance to focus on uncovering corruption in Democratic-run cities instead.
“We don't need a deal with Iran”
Timing suggests Iran meeting concern
Vance's removal came within hours of the Wall Street Journal reporting the Vice-President was open to an in-person meeting with Mohsen Rezaei, Iran's hard-liner secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.
Trump signals neither war nor peace
Before Election Day, Trump considered military escalation against Iran.Since then he told sixty minutes he saw no reason to do so.He appears to be signalling a strategy of naval blockade and economic sanctions instead.
Three options, no strategy
Aaron David Miller, who served as an American negotiator in the Middle East for decades, said Trump had three options: negotiate, escalate, or strangulate.
Strangulation risks long-term failure
Miller warned that the neither-here-nor-there option will not change I.R.G.C. foundational positions and will over time compel Iran to break out and escalate. Israeli expert Danny Citrinowicz agreed the risk of renewed escalation remains significant.
Vance's public break with Trump
After the election, Vance posted that the reason Republicans lost was the war, notably avoiding any support for Trump's position that it was defensible to head off a future Iranian nuclear bomb.
“The reason we lost is the war”
Trump's anger with Vance grows
Initially Trump claimed he agreed the war caused the losses.But over the past few days his anger with Vance grew.
“Not at all”
Inevitable breakup accelerated
Being Trump's Vice-President was almost certainly not going to work out well for Vance. The midterm defeat accelerated the inevitable breakup between a President who ran on no new wars and then started one and…
The one thing
Trump fired Vice-President Vance from Iran peace negotiations via Truth Social after Vance blamed the midterm losses on the war, deepening their split.