Booker: Trump Is “Played As A Fool” In Iran

Sen. Cory Booker criticized President Donald Trump’s Iran negotiations, saying Trump is “being played as a fool” and that U.S. policy is putting the country in a stalemate—while Iran’s nuclear posture and leverage at the Strait of Hormuz have worsened, Booker

For Sen. Cory Booker, the dispute over Iran isn’t an abstraction. It’s the moment he says the administration stepped into negotiations expecting a clean handoff on the nuclear file—only to end up with a worse position for America.

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper on Sunday. the Democratic senator from New Jersey went after President Donald Trump for repeatedly blasting former President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. Booker argued that Trump is now “doing worse” than Obama’s deal ever did—and that the president is being manipulated by Iran.

“Trump being played as a fool that he is for getting us into this in the first place,” Booker said. He added that the “weak nation” or Iran has “put America in a stalemate” as a result.

Tapper asked Booker whether Trump’s negotiations are “better than the deal Obama got with Iran,” and Booker answered with a sharp contradiction: what Trump has said he came into negotiations to achieve, Booker said, is not what the current approach is delivering.

Booker said he was responding to what he’s seen rather than a formal briefing. “We haven’t had an official briefing, but this is what I’m seeing that has me so outraged right now is the president said he went into this to deal with their nuclear program,” he told Tapper.

“That does not deal with that,” Booker said. He argued that before Trump took office for the first time, Iran had “no highly enriched uranium” because it had been “sent out.” In Booker’s account, Iran now has it “because of him.”

He then took aim at Trump’s criticism of the financial structure of Obama’s deal. Booker said Trump had “criticized roundly” that the previous agreement involved securing $50 billion for Iran to help get rid of the program—or at least the highly enriched component. Booker countered that Trump’s own approach is allowing large sums to move despite the sanctions pressure being held up as leverage.

“Already the president’s balance sheet is letting more than $14 billion go through that during this conflict; he allowed them to sell oil in this deal alone,” Booker said.

Booker also framed sanctions relief as money that buys Iran additional room to act beyond the negotiating table. “Easing of sanctions on Iran. allowing them to get billions of more. the same deal [from Obama that] he criticized. he’s already doing worse than. ” Booker said. In his warning, giving Iran more money would allow it to “fuel their proxy terrorist proxies.”.

On the war itself, Booker called it “wrong,” and said Trump has left the United States worse off than it was before. “He’s got us in a situation that’s worse than it was before — a more extreme regime [with the] Strait of Hormuz now as a leveraging point for them,” he said.

Booker’s remarks landed as the United States neared what regional officials described as an endgame for the conflict. The U.S. regional officials told The Associated Press on Sunday. is on the verge of reaching a deal with Iran to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. despite Trump saying he told representatives “not to rush into a deal.” What is outlined in any agreement. Booker said. remains unknown—because he has not received an official briefing.

The pressure around timing and leverage is part of the friction Booker is drawing between the administration’s stated goals and the conditions he says Iran now has. One thread runs through his argument: Trump may have entered these talks promising to address Iran’s nuclear program. but Booker says the facts he believes he’s seeing point in a different direction—toward greater Iranian capability and a more precarious position for the United States at a vital chokepoint.

Cory Booker Donald Trump Iran nuclear deal Iran talks Strait of Hormuz sanctions enriched uranium proxy groups State of the Union Jake Tapper