Vice President JD Vance to Fox News: Trump is 'never going to let this be a forever war'

Vice President JD Vance took questions from Texas voters at a Fox News town hall hosted by Jesse Watters in Fort Worth. The pre-taped event aired on "Jesse Watters Primetime" on Oct. 29, five days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, and the first audience question was about the war with Iran.

A first-time voter's question

Brock Genz, president of the College Republicans at Texas Christian University (TCU), told Vance he cast his first vote in 2024 for Trump and Vance because of their promises on affordability, government accountability and ending foreign wars. Nearly two years later, he said, many young voters feel those promises have not been fully realized, particularly with another conflict under way. He asked where the administration had fallen short and why voters should trust Republicans to deliver.

'Seven months' and '47 years'

"I understand the frustration about foreign misadventures in the Middle East. I served in Iraq. It's one of the main reasons I got involved politically, because I was so sick of this stuff," Vance said.

"We've been involved in Iran in some form for seven months. The United States has been dealing with Iran for 47 years, and I promise you that Donald Trump is not going to let Iran become a forever war, which is the criticism that's been made."

Force versus 'misadventures'

Vance argued that skepticism about past wars does not rule out military action: "There's a difference between criticizing foreign military misadventures and saying that you can never, ever use the American military."

He returned to the point at the end of his answer: "There's a lot more we need to work on, but the one thing I'll tell you is, if you're worried about another forever war, Donald Trump is never going to let this be a forever war. He's going to accomplish America's objectives, and then we're going to focus on the other things that we're doing."

Immigration and housing

Defending the rest of the administration's record, Vance said: "Obviously I'm biased, but I think we're doing a good job." He pointed to immigration enforcement, a crackdown on visa fraud that he said big corporations had used to undercut American workers' wages, and a ban on Wall Street buying up American homes. Home list prices in Texas doubled during the Biden administration, he said, but have since "cooled off in the state of Texas and elsewhere in the country, too."

Diplomacy and the midterms

The town hall aired as attention focused on Vance's letter to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. Iranian state media confirmed the letter had been received but said Tehran had not replied, while Trump described the outreach as humanitarian rather than a bid to reopen peace talks. Two days earlier, Trump had told an election rally in Texas that the war would end soon.

Cover photo: Official vice presidential portrait, March 2026 (Official White House Photo by Emily J. Higgins), via Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Video: Fox News.