RCP’s Phil Wegmann sparked a long stream of consciousness from the president on Monday when he asked Vice President Vance if he has any reservations about supporting the war in Iran, during the announcement of a task force to search for government fraud:

PHILIP WEGMANN, REAL CLEAR POLITICS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, sir. Two questions. First, Mr. Vice President, Democrats are already calling you the fraud czar. What’s your reaction to that title? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It’s a good title. I like it. WEGMANN: And then second, given your past skepticism of foreign adventurism, are you completely on board with the current war in Iran? VICE PRESIDENT J.D. VANCE: So I like fraud czar. It’s certainly what we’re going to do. And look, we have to do it. As the president said, this is a problem that has festered in this country for far too long and far too few people have actually wanted to do anything about it. That’s what makes this administration different, is that we actually tackle the problems the American people have been confronting. So I’m very happy about it. And look, I think that I know what you’re trying to do, Phil. You’re trying to drive a wedge between members of the administration, between me and the president. What the president said consistently going back to 2015, and I agreed with him, is that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. We have taken this military action under the president’s leadership. I think all of us, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, should pray for success and pray for the safety of our troops. That’s the approach that I’ve taken. Make it as successful as possible. WEGMANN: So there’s no hesitation given your past statements with the current operation? VANCE: What do you mean there’s no hesitation with my past statements? WEGMANN: Given your skepticism of foreign adventurism, you were a critic of the Global War on Terror previously. VANCE: Well, I think one big difference, Phil, is that we have a smart president, whereas in the past we’ve had dumb presidents. And I trust President Trump to get the job done, to do a good job for the American people, and to make sure that the mistakes of the past aren’t repeated. Absolutely. WEGMANN: Thanks, sir. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: J.D. has been great. But here’s the simple thing – I want wars less than almost anybody. Peace through strength. But you know what? I’ve watched Iran for a long time. I called it about 20 years ago when I was a civilian, watching the world. They are violent, vicious people – the leadership. They killed 32,000 protesters over the last three weeks. They put out a memo two days ago saying if you protest, we will shoot you and kill you in the streets. Somebody said there’s not that many protests. There are bombs going off all over the place. Even if there weren’t – who’s going to do that? They don’t have any guns. They have every form of gun you can have – the latest machine guns. They shoot them right through the middle of the head. They are violent people. If they had a nuclear weapon, they would use it. Sometimes some of the people that feel very strongly, like I do about wars – I say, do you think Iran is violent? Do you think the people are violent? Yes, the leadership. Do you think they should have a nuclear weapon, which is massive power? I don’t even want to discuss how powerful – it’s depressing. They say no, they shouldn’t have it. Definitely they shouldn’t have it. And you don’t want to fight a war. We don’t want to fight a war. These are naive people. Frankly, you’re stupid if you believe Iran should have a nuclear weapon. There is something wrong with you. They would use it – the only question is within one hour if they get it, or one day. They will use it and blow up the entire Middle East – not just Israel. You got to see that when they unexpectedly started sending missiles to every country within a thousand miles of them. They were blowing up countries that were neighbors – some friends. They were blowing up some friends. Blowing up the people that handled their accounts. Sending thousands of missiles into countries that didn’t expect to be in the war. Because they wanted to take over the Middle East. If I didn’t terminate Barack Hussein Obama’s horrible Iran nuclear deal, which I did in my first term – one of the dumbest deals, perhaps the dumbest deal – you would have had them have a nuclear weapon three years ago, maybe four years ago. They would have blown up the Middle East and come after us. If these gorgeous B-2 bombers – give me that bomber. Let me hug that little sucker. That bomber. Thank you. You knew immediately which one. It looks small, but in person it’s very big. The only plane capable of carrying a 30,000-pound bomb. I don’t know how they do it. It’s sleek and nice, but it carries a lot of weapons and there are a lot of bombs. Had I not sent this incredible machine – times numerous others – to hit Iran at midnight with no moon, dead dark, every single bomb dropped down the chute it was supposed to hit. How they do it – who knows? Nobody else configured it. No other country can do it. No other country is our military or even close. I think we are probably proving that. If I didn’t do that – if I didn’t decimate their nuclear capability – they would have had a nuclear weapon within one month after that bombing took place. They would have used it on Israel and then the Middle East. Had we not done that, you would have had a nuclear war. It would have evolved into World War III, and more important, this is a war where there would have been nothing left. We have done a great thing. The people that say it’s okay for a very sick ideology – very sick country in terms of leadership, great people – the people that say that, I think, are either evil or stupid. If you believe that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon – they should not have it – then you have to love what I’ve done. Two weeks – we have decimated them. They have no Navy, no Air Force, no anti-aircraft defense. They have no leadership. Leadership is gone. They set up new leadership to name a new leader – and that leadership is gone. Now they think they view the sun as gone – they’re all gone. My biggest problem is I have no idea who we’re talking to, because nobody’s ever heard of any of these people. They’re all dead. We did a job for the world – not a job for us, the whole world. We took the worst country in 50 years – maybe longer from the ideological standpoint – a country that wanted to blow up the world. When you add religion – do you know people don’t realize more people died in religious wars than every other war put together. That’s what you would have had here. It was a terrible thing. I am very proud. I think J.D. understands – J.D. understands better than most – if you give Iran a nuclear weapon, at least a very substantial part of the world would be blown up, and it will be used almost immediately. You don’t mind if I keep this here? Isn’t it a beautiful thing? You look at it and I say it’s a piece of art. How can it be effective? It’s so stealth. Think of it – 1:00 in the morning, it flies in and they say, Sir, they are in Iranian airspace. I say, Oh. And I’m watching it from the Situation Room with a couple of other very smart people, including some good generals – real generals, not television generals. All of a sudden you see that dot – they start diving. 30,000, 20,000. It went down fast. They know they are coming and they are smart, and they never saw them. They are firing a little bit – they don’t know where – they obviously can’t see a thing. And then you hear the biggest explosions anybody’s ever heard. Those are the biggest bombs – outside of nuclear, those are the biggest bombs. What technology we have. What a great country. Largely I built it during my first term. I didn’t know I would have to use it this much in my second term. We had an incompetent president. We had an incompetent administration.

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