Donald Trump has characterised the ongoing conflict in Iran as “small potatoes” after JD Vance said the conflict was not a “war”.
On Thursday, the Vice President held a briefing in place of Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down as Press Secretary last week to spend more time with her young family.
Mr Vance stepped up to the lectern and insisted that despite strikes being exchanged between Washington and Tehran, the fight could not be called a “war” and “active combat operations” had ended months ago.
“I wouldn’t call it a war,” he said. “Right now, there is no active shooting. I recognise there have been places where this has flared up.”
Read Also: Beavers released into wild on Exmoor form blossoming bond
Now, Mr Trump has supported his second-in-command, arguing the war was a minor conflict for the US military.
On Friday, the President told reporters: “A lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing.
“We did Venezuela, and we did this.”
The President, earlier on Friday, said the fighting in Iran was a war as he took to Truth Social to slam the Democratic Party.
Mr Trump said: “The Radical Left Lunatics, Dumocrats, and Communists would rather have us LOSE the War in Iran, than have President Donald J Trump WIN the War for America.
“In other words, they’d rather have us LOSE than have us WIN. These are very sick people who suffer from serious TDS, sometimes referred to as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”
And the Commander-in-Chief told GB News on Thursday the “war” had to happen because the US would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Mr Trump also told The People’s Channel the US Space Force, a military branch responsible for satellite monitoring, had “cameras on Pickaxe Mountain”, with knowledge of “everybody that walks in and walks out” of the Iranian site some analysts have linked to its nuclear programme.
LATEST ON THE IRAN WAR:
- Donald Trump unleashes fury at UK’s lack of support in Iran war as he issues Falklands threat
- Iran attacks US bases across Middle East as Donald Trump threatens ‘much harder’ strikes
- US issues urgent warning in three Middle East nations as airspace could close imminently
He has now suggested the US would soon strike the subterranean mountain site.
“We may hit Pickaxe very soon because if there was anything going on with Pickaxe – we know everybody that’s moving at Pickaxe” the President told reporters.
“We know everybody that’s moving everywhere all over Iran, and if anything goes bad, we hit them. We hit them hard.”
Mr Vance also took a swipe at Europe in his second appearance in the White House Briefing Room after previously taking the place of Mrs Leavitt in May.
He boasted that “15 million barrels of oil” transported through the Strait of Hormuz because of US military action which a number of European countries “begged us not to do”.
Also on Friday, the US Treasury launched a fresh set of sanctions against three Iran-based companies as this new phase of war does not seem any closer to an end.
Mrs Leavitt’s replacement still has yet to be named – during her maternity leave Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also filled in, but all the men named have their own portfolios to manage.
Names floated include to be the next Press Secretary include CNN contributor Scott Jennings, White House policy adviser Stephen Miller, his wife Katie, and Deputy Press Secretary Katie Miller.
Our Standards:
The GB News Editorial Charter
