Vice President J.D. Vance said Thursday that he would not characterize the United States as being at war with Iran, even as the two countries have exchanged strikes in recent days and the Trump Administration has declined to say when a conflict now stretching beyond six months might finally end.
“I wouldn’t call it a war,” Vance told reporters at a White House press briefing, the first since Karoline Leavitt stepped down as press secretary last month. “Right now, there is no active shooting.”
The distinction was striking after a renewed burst of hostilities this week, including American strikes inside Iran and Iranian attacks in the region. But it echoed an argument that President Trump and other Republicans made in the earliest days of the conflict: that the United States was carrying out a limited military operation rather than embarking on another prolonged Middle Eastern war, which, under the Constitution, would require congressional approval.
More than six months later, that distinction has become increasingly difficult to sustain. The United States has repeatedly bombed targets inside Iran as Tehran attacks commercial shipping vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, contributing to higher energy prices.
