President Donald Trump blasted former President Barack Obama and put the 44th president on notice: whatever deal he strikes with Iran will be nothing like the one his predecessor handed Tehran on a silver platter.
“If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama,” Trump wrote on Truth Social this week. “That deal gave them a clear and open path to a Nuclear Weapon.”
Trump has hammered the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) relentlessly as the current negotiations with Tehran reach a critical stage. In an April primetime address to the nation, he went further, calling it a “disaster” and saying Obama effectively funded Iran’s nuclear ambitions while getting nothing in return.
“Obama gave them $1.7 billion in cash — green, green cash,” Trump said. “Took it out of banks from Virginia, DC and Maryland. All the cash they had.”
“His Iran deal would have led to a colossal arsenal of massive nuclear weapons for Iran, and they would have had them years ago, and they would have used them,” the president said. “There would have been no Middle East and no Israel right now, in my opinion.”
“I was so honored to rip it apart,” he said about Obama’s deal. “I was so proud to do it.”
As for what his own deal looks like, Trump said he can’t fully reveal the details yet.
“Our deal is the exact opposite,” he said, “but nobody has seen it, or knows what it is. It isn’t even fully negotiated yet. So don’t listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about.”
Despite those assurances, the situation on the ground remains volatile. The U.S. military carried out “self-defense strikes” in southern Iran Monday, targeting missile launch sites and Iranian boats that were caught laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command confirmed.
“U.S. forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said. “Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines.”
Two IRGC vessels were destroyed and a surface-to-air missile site near Bandar Abbas was struck. A senior U.S. official told Fox News the strikes were “over for now” and that the ceasefire technically remains in effect. Explosions were also reported near Sirik and Jask along the strategic waterway.
On the same day as the strikes, Trump struck an optimistic tone on Truth Social.
“Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely!” he wrote. “It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all — Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before — And nobody wants that!”
Trump declared last weekend that a deal had been “largely negotiated,” though he cautioned that final details and an announcement would come “shortly.”
What has emerged from multiple sources close to the negotiations is a framework built around a memorandum of understanding as a first phase, followed by 60 days of structured negotiations. During that window, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen with no tolls and Iran would agree to clear mines it deployed in the waterway. In return, the U.S. would lift its blockade of Iranian ports and allow Iran to resume oil exports.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly stated the American non-negotiables: Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon, must turn over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and the Strait must reopen without tolls.
“This problem will be solved, as the president’s made clear, one way or the other,” Rubio promised.
And Obama’s deal will remain torn to pieces.