I’m not sure why Vance was ever assigned to Iran in the first place, except that Trump may have felt that Vance would be perceived by the Iranians as more willing to deal than, say, Rubio. Trump wanted to Give Peace a Chance.

But at this point, Trump doesn’t seem any too pleased with Vance’s attitude towards that conflict, or to Trump’s handling of it:

Trump has tasked Vance to put his “complete and total attention” on corruption in Democrat-run states, which Trump insists is a much higher priority than negotiating with Iran. In fact, Trump declared in the same post that we don’t need a deal with Iran at all …

Vance has chaired Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud for the last several months, which has mainly focused on Democrat-run states and cities anyway. Trump’s order for Vance to focus exclusively on this effort is new, and it follows Vance’s public criticism of Trump’s approach to Iran and Israel.

It also follows a last-ditch effort by Vance to cut a deal …

Vance has said that the Iran war was the reason for the midterm debacle. It certainly was part of the reason. But the Democrats’ brilliant plan to emphasize “affordability” (with the help of the MSM, and without needing to describe their supposed solutions) was more important, according to polls. Also, what element of the Iran war were people annoyed with? Wasn’t it that we dithered around trying to negotiate with those who cannot be trusted to negotiate? Wasn’t that Vance’s department?

This difference between Trump and Vance represents a very real split on the right. It’s between the Iran hawks and the isolationists, and it’s nothing new. However, it’s been fueled by the likes of the neo-Buchananesque Tucker wing. It’s hard to estimate that wing’s size, but I believe it’s consequential. Make no mistake about it, Vance is on that side, as has been apparent for quite some time. That he doesn’t necessarily buy into all the Jew-hating doesn’t mean he isn’t basically aligned with that wing on a foreign policy level.

[NOTE: I will add that I believe that one reason Republican turnout was down in this election was the influence of the Tucker wing. He explicitly told his listeners he cannot vote for the GOP this round; he started saying this back in June:

Carlson asked how any American “could support a political party that’s not loyal to the United States.”

“It’s not possible to vote for people like that and I’m not going to,” he said. “I voted Republican my entire life, I worked at Fox News … I’ve been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican Party, but there’s no defending this because it’s immoral.” …

“And if I’m out, then I think a lot of other people are out, too.”

Yes, a lot of his follower are bots or foreigners. But there are a lot of real voters in the US who listen to him and whom he influences, too. He wanted them to stay home, and they did.]

[NOTE II: I had hoped to publish that piece on the midterms and the GOP Congress and Thune today. I’m going to postpone it, though; too many other chores I have to do. However, I really do think I’ll be publishing it tomorrow.]