Make New York Post a Preferred Source President Donald Trump speaks in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Nov. 2, 2026, in Washington. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein President Donald Trump has it entirely right: The days for seeking “a deal with Iran” indeed “have long since passed.”
Tehran refuses to back off what Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls its “outrageous and ridiculous” demands, such as insisting it be handed a stronger position — including the right to toll Strait of Hormuz traffic — than it had before Operation Epic Fury kicked off.
So the prez will stick with the embargo and other sanctions to keep choking Iran’s economy, leaving it unable to significantly reconstitute its nuclear program, and wait — with the option of other combat operations where appropriate.
Some see this as a slap at Vice President JD Vance, who (according to Turkish officials) had been reaching out to Tehran for fresh high-level talks.
But that’s not how Trump framed it in his Truth Social post Thursday: Rather, he just sees the veep’s anti-fraud work (tackling “large scale criminal activity”) as far more productive, recovering billions for the taxpayers, than wasting time on Iran outreach.
After all, Tehran torpedoed Vance’s last deal, this summer’s Memorandum of Understanding, by attacking ships in the Gulf; the president won’t be played for a sucker again.
Vance wasn’t wrong to say the war was a big reason for Republicans’ wipeout in the midterms, the prez has noted — but Trump has also declared he’d do it again, because (as he’s said consistently for decades) Iran can’t be allowed to go nuclear.
One White House official tells The Post that the post was a message to Iran, not Vance: “The Iranians should understand that the president is in the dominant position and able to exercise real strategic patience here”; if Trump “ever sees a smart deal worth looking at, he’ll send the VP to get it done.”
Tehran may try waiting Trump out, in hopes Democrats use their coming control of Congress to somehow force him to surrender — but Dems surely won’t want to hand control of Hormuz, and a lasting stranglehold over world oil markets, to the “Death to America” crew.
Iran’s rulers need to give up their crazy demands, or their country will keep falling apart around them.
