President Trump announced today that the United States will be reinstating sanctions on Iran, nearly guaranteeing a full scuttling of the Iran nuclear peace deal, and reinstating the incentive for the Persians to pursue nuclear weapons as a deterrent against a possible western invasion. It was a deeply ignorant move by a president who doesn’t understand the deal but hates it simply because his predecessor, the first black president, forged it. He failed to provide any evidence proving that Iran has violated the deal.
Trump’s entire agenda has been the erasure of President Obama’s legacy, and today his nihilism took its most dangerous turn to date. The abandoning of the deal makes war more likely, and also destroys our global credibility. Future presidents will find it difficult to create international consensus since now the entire world knows we are only ever just one bad election away from a vindictive madman assuming power and torpedoing everything built by whoever came before him.
Not surprisingly, President Obama has issued an eloquent, urgent response to Trump’s decision. He reiterated that the Iran Deal (officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) is working, despite Trump’s insistence to the contrary. Obama also rightfully pointed out that betraying the Iran deal makes the path to North Korea denuclearization much harder.
Right when it looks like the Kim regime might finally come to the table and disarm, Trump is sending a message that the United States cannot be trusted to honor its agreements. There is no upside here.
President Obama also used facts and numbers to explain exactly how and why the JCPOA is working, offering a levelheaded antidote to our current anti-facts leader.
Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg News shared Obama’s full statement, which was also posted to the former president’s official Facebook. The text has been reproduced below for easier reading.
Rare new statement from @BarackObama assailing @realDonaldTrump's "misguided" decision to withdraw from the Iran deal. pic.twitter.com/f4hyjhEiyo
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) May 8, 2018
Perhaps the most sobering part of the statement is the section in which President Obama admits that Trump’s decision could eventually lead to war. This was always the greatest risk in electing Trump. His sociopathic behavior means a devastating new war could prove to be not the last resort, but something he embarks on at a whim. Hopefully, that never comes to pass.