On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance held a White House press briefing, the first since former press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s departure last month, in which he defended the energy costs of data centers and deflected on high gas prices. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has previously claimed prices would lower to $3 per gallon by Labor Day. (That has yet to happen.) Vance blamed Iran for energy costs remaining high, but it was his comments about the ongoing Iran war that drew special attention.
In February, the Trump administration joined Israel in attacking Iran, in what the president repeatedly promised was to be a short affair, roughly four to six weeks. Around the same time, Vance himself claimed there was “no chance” the war would drag out. Now six months later, the U.S. has reported 18 military personnel killed and more than 750 wounded, with a ballooning cost estimated somewhere between $71 billion and $118 billion. According to the independent defense research portal MilitarySpend, between 1,700 to 3,700 civilians across the Middle East have died in the war, most of them Iranian.
When asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins whether the war might conclude by the November midterm elections, Vance said it was up to the Iranians, but denied it was even a war at all. He gave no timeline for when things might end.
“I don’t … I wouldn’t call it a war,” Vance said, claiming that major combat operations lasted for about six weeks and destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities. “Right now, there is no active shooting,” he continued, but admitted there have been times in which the conflict has “flared up.” The last week has been marked by escalating exchanges of fire between the two sides.
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“When you ask when will this end, you’re asking me a question like, when will the Iranians stop shooting at ships? I think the reality is I don’t know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians,” Vance said.
Earlier during the briefing, he said Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz was “effectively gone” and it’s a “diminishing asset.” Vance also claimed the U.S. never targets civilians in combat. Numerous human rights groups, as well as the United Nations, describe the conflict as a war.
