Trump’s Iran deal is the worst ever

Trump’s Iran – A prominent Republican-turned-commentator argues that the Iran deal outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding would give Tehran immediate sanction relief and access to $300 billion without upfront limits on uranium enrichment, missile development, or changes t

For more than a decade, U.S. politics has followed a familiar rhythm: each party points to the other’s missteps, then moves on. But the argument being made now is that the current standard has slipped so far that past criticisms suddenly look small.

The focus is a Memorandum of Understanding laying out what President Donald Trump’s Iran deal would do—details Trump has been reluctant to share—and what one prominent commentator calls its humiliation and danger for the United States.

The comparison being pushed is stark. The commentator looks back on Republicans’ past objections to former President Bill Clinton pardoning his brother and his “corrupt donor friend” Marc Rich. She recalls Republicans criticizing former President Barack Obama’s golf outings, his executive orders, and his “red line” regarding Syria. She also points to years of Republican scrutiny of former President Joe Biden’s “gaffes.” Those disputes. she says. now look “patently ridiculous” beside Trump’s “cartoonish and downright dangerous offenses.”.

Among them, she cites the president’s decision to pardon Jan. 6 insurrectionists—nearly 100 of whom. she writes. have since been arrested for. charged with. or convicted of crimes separate from the events of that day. She also cites what she describes as “reckless tariffs” imposed on friends, neighbors, and enemies. And she points to Trump’s “sledgehammer” approach to government agencies that she says put Americans at risk. including in “airplanes. in hospitals. at job sites. or in natural disasters.”.

Then, she turns to the Iran agreement.

She says she remembers the Obama administration’s 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the JCPOA, well. In her account. Republicans and a group of foreign policy experts criticized that deal for concessions to “a very bad actor” who. she argues. could not be trusted. Her most detailed critique centers on what she calls the deal’s reliance on trust—along with what she describes as “sudden access to a boatload of cash. ” specifically $100 billion.

She also argues the Obama deal’s provisions were temporary. allowing Iran to restart enriching uranium upon a “sunset.” In her telling. the JCPOA did not address Iran’s ballistic missiles. nor its funding of terrorist proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas. She further says the “anytime. anywhere” inspections came with a 24-day delay if Iran chose to comply on that timeline. giving Iran what she calls “ample time to hide any suspect materials.” She adds that the agreement did not require congressional authority.

If the Obama deal was bad, she says it becomes the “Magna Carta” next to Trump’s.

Under the Trump framework she describes. she says Iran would receive immediate sanction relief and access to $300 billion—money she suggests could be used to fund terror proxies. She argues the deal secures no upfront limits on uranium enrichment or missile development. She also says the agreement would allow Iran to “charge for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz” in the future.

On Israel, she describes another provision she says benefits Iran: it calls for Israel to stop its attacks on Hezbollah. In her framing. neither Americans nor the Middle East are safer than they were 100-plus days earlier. when Trump decided to pursue this “folly.” She also says the U.S. economy is weaker as a result, while Iran is “unquestionably stronger and more emboldened.”.

Her argument rests on a perception she says Iran has drawn from Trump’s behavior: that Tehran has watched Trump show “weakness. ” “unseriousness. ” and a limited appreciation for history. She says Iran has seen the administration retreat on what she characterizes as core threats to the regime—from bombing Iran’s “cultural sites” to ending a change she describes as occurring “a civilization overnight.” She writes that Iran has also taken notice of what she calls abandoned promises that were supposedly central to Trump’s justification for war in the first place—promises including “regime change. ” “liberating the Iranian people. ” and removing Iran’s nuclear materials.

She closes by describing the situation as waste—“blood and treasure. ” as well as “American might and power”—in a way that lets enemies “watch us limp desperately toward a conclusion” she says is being described by the right as “unthinkable. ” “appeasement. ” and “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”.

S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.

Trump Iran deal Memorandum of Understanding JCPOA Bill Clinton pardons Marc Rich Obama red line Jan. 6 pardons tariffs Hezbollah Hamas Strait of Hormuz