‘no One Wants To Talk About Iran’: White House Hopes To Pivot Back To Economy

Inside the White House, the plan is to move on from the war in Iran and focus on the domestic issues that polls show matter most to voters. It’s proving hard to do.

The Iranians and the administration are offering conflicting accounts of what has been agreed to in the latest peace deal, undermining the effort to sell the proposed agreement as an American victory. Israeli troops on Tuesday fatally shot two people in Lebanon, threatening the fragile ceasefire. Conservative criticism of the deal abounds in the Wall Street Journal, on Fox News and throughout social media.

That’s left President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in a precarious position — trying to reframe the conversation while batting down their critics, especially hawks on the right who accuse the administration of capitulation.

The tension was on display Tuesday with Trump in Reading, Pennsylvania to tout his economic accomplishments. Just after arriving, he told reporters he was ready to cancel further negotiations if Iran refused to let international inspectors into the country, the latest in a series of threats to upend the 60-day talks and resume hostilities.

Then, during his speech at a Mack Truck facility, he touted the number of factories being built in the United States, the shrinking trade deficit, foreign investments and tax cuts.

“Our economy is ready to soar to levels the world has not seen before,” Trump told the crowd.

It was a campaign-style speech replete with praise for Reps. Dan Meuser and Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.) and criticism of Democrats for voting against Trump’s tax cuts and his funding for the border wall.

“We got to win the midterms,” Trump said.

Iran came up only briefly and in context of the economy not taking as big a hit as some feared.

The president’s allies say the less spoken about Iran, the better.

“If you're a Republican, yeah, for God's sakes, no one wants to talk about Iran,” said Matthew Bartlett, a GOP strategist who worked for Trump’s State Department during the first term. “This is not a time of celebration and ticker-tape parades.”

A senior White House official, who, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the administration's efforts, said the plan is to redouble efforts to sell the president’s economic achievements amid ongoing concern about inflation, which last month reached its highest point since 2023.

There will be more domestic trips in the coming weeks to discuss the economy and a big patriotic message tied to the semiquincentennial next month, the official said.

Trump’s planned address on the National Mall Wednesday evening will be a rally-style speech touting his accomplishments. There are also plans to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Big Beautiful Bill, which Trump signed last July 4, “to remind the public that President Trump delivered on his promise to cut taxes - and Democrats opposed it every step of the way," the official said.

That’s the best course of action, said a person close to the White House, who added there’s no debate inside the White House that the Iran deal is a tough sell.

“I mean, who's going to love the deal?” the person asked. “The point is we're not getting a good deal, because guess what, it didn't work. In other words, our gamble didn't work. We decapitated the regime, and we thought that that would mean regime change, and it didn't.”

The path forward, the person said, should be to focus on the prices that are coming down. After peaking at $4.56 per gallon in early May, gasoline prices are down 60 cents a gallon in the last month.

Trump emphasized that point on Tuesday, again touting the stock market highs and the rapid decline in oil prices.

“We're getting out and prices are going back down,” the person close to the White House said. “That's how you sell it.”

Still, that effort to move on faces enormous challenges — not least from Trump himself, who is not known for message discipline.

Trump again on Tuesday suggested that Iran would use some of its unfrozen assets to purchase American agricultural products, a point the Iranians have denied.

Before speaking at the truck factory in Pennsylvania, Trump took aim at Republicans criticizing the deal.

"Well I think anybody that's been critical of it has to be educated, even if they're friends of mine,” he told reporters before speaking. “Because we have Iran in a position that nobody's ever had."

The memorandum of understanding struck over the weekend intended to create a path to peace is facing attacks from a host of otherwise loyal Republicans.

“A lot of Americans don’t like the deal and they are free to express their opinions,” MAGA influencer Laura Loomer saidon X.

It puts Vance, the face of negotiations and a leading contender to succeed Trump, in a delicate spot, particularly if the deal goes south.

But, if it works the way Vance allies hope, he can position himself as the Trump-fixer who helped end a war he was never all that keen on fighting. That could prove politically invaluable for anyone trying to keep those frustrated with Trump’s foreign adventurism in the fold.

Vance, according to a second person close to the White House, has always been “seen as the guy whose main focus has always been the conclusion of the conflict, and he's always kept his finger on the pulse of the right flank of the party that ultimately has lost trust in the president on this particular, so by making him the face of the so-called end of the war, you are bringing a level of credibility to say, guys, you know what I've always been in wanting this war to end.”

Vance has been aided by a swarm of MAGA faithful, insinuating that opposition to the deal is a coordinated hit, not representative of genuine angst.

"It is rather obvious that there's like a paid campaign to try to psyop people into believing that the deal is unpopular,” a third person close to the White House said. “The actual psyop that they're running is to try to convince like JD that this is hurting him politically when reality actually shows the opposite."

Donald Trump Jr. called it a “coordinated op” to push “lies and propaganda”on X. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.)said “coordinated influencer op against @VP vance and the peace talks is ridiculous and sociopathic” and former White House chief of staff Taylor Budowichsaid opinion writer Marc Thiessen was “wrong” for claiming those against the deal supported Trump’s initial military action.

“The administration isn't targeting any of these people, we're just pointing out that they're idiots,” said a fourth person close to the White House.

Thus far, the effort hasn’t quelled the critics, which a fifth person familiar with the White House's thinking on Iran suggested would be nearly impossible to do because the memorandum of understanding is only the start. It will be at least 60 days before even the White House knows what it’s really selling.

“They are doing the best they can with a really horrible hand,” the person said. “You’re selling an iterative process, which is never easy, and then secondly, you have an untrustworthy partner, so you know people are rightly trained and conditioned not to believe anything that Iran says."

Diana Nerozzi contributed to this report.