Trump said it himself – his vice president wasn't fully on board when the Iran decision came down.
Now the president is confirming what sources had already leaked, and the details matter.
What Trump Said in Florida
At his press conference Monday evening, Trump didn't dodge the question.
A reporter asked directly whether he and Vance had disagreed on action against Iran.
"We get along very well on this," Trump said. "He was, I would say, philosophically a little bit different than me. I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going, but he was quite enthusiastic. But I felt it was something we had to do. I didn't feel we had a choice. If we didn't do it, they would have done it to us."
A source familiar with the matter had previously told ABC News that Vance made his reservations known internally before Operation Epic Fury launched February 28.
Once Trump made the decision, Vance shifted to full support of the military operation.
Vance's Track Record on Military Action
This is not the first time Vance expressed internal skepticism before ultimately backing a Trump military decision.
In March 2025, Vance told Cabinet-level colleagues in a Signal group chat that striking Houthi targets in Yemen was "a mistake." He argued that 3 percent of U.S. trade ran through the Suez Canal compared to 40 percent of Europe's – and questioned whether America was effectively subsidizing European security.
"I just hate bailing Europe out again," he wrote in that exchange.
He deferred to the group. The Yemen strikes went forward.
Before Operation Epic Fury launched, Vance told The Washington Post there was "no chance" of a drawn-out war if the U.S. moved forward with strikes on Iran. In a subsequent Fox News interview, he added the operation "could go for a lot longer" – while stressing that Trump would never allow the country into a multi-year conflict without a clearly defined objective.
"He's defined that objective as Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and has to commit long-term to never trying to rebuild the nuclear capability," Vance told Fox News.
Operation Epic Fury Results
Trump told reporters Monday the military campaign is running ahead of schedule.
"We're achieving major strides toward completing our military objective," he said. "And some people could say they're pretty well complete. We've wiped every single force in Iran out very completely."
The White House reports that Operation Epic Fury knocked out Iran's military command structure, air defenses, missile production capacity, and naval fleet. Ayatollah Khamenei was killed in joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on February 28.
The operation followed Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025, which targeted Iran's core nuclear facilities. Administration officials said Iran had since moved to rebuild its nuclear program and, across three rounds of talks in February 2026, refused to accept a zero-enrichment standard.
Vance's Position Going Forward
"There's just no way that Donald Trump is going to allow this country to get into a multi-year conflict with no clear end in sight and no clear objective," Vance told Fox News.
Trump's public confirmation of their philosophical difference comes as a minority of voices within the MAGA coalition – including former adviser Steve Bannon and commentators Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly – have raised concerns about the operation's long-term trajectory.
Trump addressed those critics directly this week.
"I think that MAGA is Trump," he said. "MAGA's not the other two."
Fox News polling conducted after the strikes found 86 percent of Trump 2024 voters supporting the Iran operation.
Sources:
- Hannah Demissie, "Trump says he and Vance are 'philosophically' different on Iran war," ABC News, March 10, 2026.
- "Peace Through Strength: President Trump Launches Operation Epic Fury," The White House, March 2026.
- "Transcript: President Trump's Presser on Operation Epic Fury Update," SingJuPost, March 9, 2026.
- Reagan Reese, "Trump Aims To End Iran's War On America – On His Terms," Daily Caller, March 10, 2026.
- Michael Warren, "Why Donald Trump Faces 'Epic Fury' From MAGA Over Iran," The Dispatch, March 6, 2026.
