President Trump said Thursday that he directed Vice President JD Vance to devote his “complete and total attention” to benefit fraud in cities and states run by Democrats.

The order moves Vance away from international diplomacy, as Trump says Washington does not currently need a deal with Iran, as reported by The New York Post.

Trump framed the assignment as an urgent response to corruption and theft in Democrat run jurisdictions. He specifically named Minnesota, California, and Illinois while indicating that he believes the problem extends to additional states.

“The Blue States, such as Minnesota, California, Illinois, and many more, are all poorly run, corrupt disasters,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. His message put benefit fraud and alleged criminal activity squarely at the center of Vance’s new focus.

Trump continued, “Billions of Dollars is being stolen each and every month. Our Budget could be quickly BALANCED with the correction of this large scale criminal activity. CORRUPTION is in the Democrat Leadership’s blood!”

The president also dismissed the immediate need to finish an agreement with Iran. His declaration came after Vance had played a key part in previous negotiations intended to end the war in the Middle East.

“We don’t need a deal with Iran . Those days have long since passed. We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!” Trump wrote.

Vance helped negotiate a 14 point memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran in June of this year. That memorandum opened a 60 day window for negotiations aimed at finalizing an end to the war.

The negotiating window passed without a completed agreement. Weeks later, the memorandum collapsed after Iran attacked commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz amid a disagreement over shipping routes.

Tehran was attempting to assert new postwar authority over the waterway, according to the account of the negotiations. The breakdown left the United States and Iran without the final deal contemplated by the June memorandum.

Vance, described as a longtime critic of protracted wars in the Middle East, attempted to restart the talks last month. With Trump’s blessing, he sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei, the hardline secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Trump’s decision to remove Vance from a negotiating role came two days after the president said the war was “effectively over.” Trump also said he would maintain the “status quo” naval blockade of Iranian ports.

The Thursday announcement leaves special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as the primary negotiators with Iran. Vance is instead being directed toward domestic benefit fraud and the corruption Trump says is rampant under Democrat leadership.

Vance previously joined Witkoff and Kushner in April for mediated peace talks in Pakistan. Those discussions were unsuccessful, and Vance later became a central figure in securing the June memorandum that also failed to produce a final agreement.

Trump and Vance have agreed that steep Republican losses in the Nov. 3 congressional elections were caused by the war. The conflict prompted a global spike in energy prices and inflation, according to the account.

Although they agreed about the war’s electoral consequences, Trump and Vance differed over whether the conflict was worth it. That disagreement accompanied Vance’s involvement in repeated efforts to negotiate with Iran.

The president has now made his priority unmistakable, shifting Vance’s attention from the stalled Iran process to benefit fraud in Democrat run cities and states. Witkoff and Kushner remain responsible for the Iran negotiations while Vance takes up Trump’s domestic assignment.

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