JD Vance: U.S. Response to Iran Retaliation Will Be Trump’s Decision

Vice President JD Vance said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that President Donald Trump would decide what the United States’ response would be to any military escalation by Iran.

Host Kristen Welker said, “If Iran retaliates against the U.S. as it is threatening, what will the United States’ response be?”

Vance said, “That will ultimately be the president’s decision. What we said to the Iranians is we do not want war with Iran. We actually want peace, but we want peace in the context of them not having a nuclear weapons program, and that’s exactly what the president accomplished last night. I really think there are two big questions for the Iranians here. Are they going to attack American troops or are they going to continue with their nuclear weapons program, and if they leave American troops out of it and they decide to give up their nuclear weapons program once and for all, then I think the president has been very clear, we can have a good relationship with the Iranians.”

He added, “We can have a peaceful situation in that region of the world. We have to step back a little bit, Kristen and remind ourselves that we negotiated aggressively with the Iranians to find a peaceful settlement with this conflict. It was only when the president decided that the Iranians were not negotiated in good faith, that he didn’t take it lightly and it provides the opportunity to reset this relationship, reset these negotiations and get us in a place where Iran can decide not to be a threat to its neighbors, not to be a threat to the United States and if they’re willing to do that, the United States is all ears.”

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