Earlier this morning, President Trump turned his Twitter fire on the Iran nuclear agreement.
Iran has been formally PUT ON NOTICE for firing a ballistic missile.Should have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017
Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017
He was referring to a strange and reckless statement put out yesterday by Lt. General Michael Flynn, his National Security Advisor. The statement vaguely declared that Iran had been “put on notice” for recent ballistic missile tests.
White House statement from Mike Flynn about recent #Iran missile tests. pic.twitter.com/pQwxI5wzQm
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) February 1, 2017
This tweet, like most of Trump’s, was riddled with falsehoods. It did not take long for people who actually understand the Iran agreement to pile on. Ben Rhodes, a former Obama foreign policy advisor and speechwriter, tweeted:
Everything Trump says here is false. Iran was not collapsing. Deal is with 6 countries. Iran did not get 150 billion. https://t.co/DuuSZr2WA1
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) February 2, 2017
Josh Wolfsthal, a former Former National Security Council Senior. Director for Non-Proliferation, went even more in-depth, taking Trump’s tweet apart piece by piece in his tweetstorm:
My morning tweetstorm on Iran and @POTUS false statements from this morning. https://t.co/N9ZOH1iOre
— Jon (((Wolfsthal))) (@JBWolfsthal) February 2, 2017
It’s not really in Trump’s nature to heed the advice of people who know what they’re talking about. Going forward, it will be critical for Congress to do their part to ensure that the president does not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon with his bluster and reckless foreign policy. The Iran agreement has worked so far — it must be preserved.