Former President Barack Obama delivered a sharp critique of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 during his first term. The Obama-era agreement, signed in 2015, limited Iran’s nuclear program—especially its ability to enrich uranium—in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran.
At the time, Trump called the deal “the worst deal in history.”
Since Trump scrapped the deal, Iran has gradually expanded its nuclear activities, with the president, 79, opting for military action and a naval blockade in an attempt to force Tehran to give up its program.
In an interview with The Late Show host Stephen Colbert, President Obama emphasized that his administration was able to constrain Iran’s nuclear program through diplomacy, without resorting to military force.
“We went about trying to negotiate a diplomatic agreement that would get the enriched uranium out of Iran, that would assure that they could not get to a nuclear weapon without us knowing about it.
“That it was internationally agreed upon and that there were mechanisms in place to enforce it and verify it, and we pulled it off without firing a missile. We got 97 percent of their enriched uranium out,” he said.
“We didn’t have to kill a whole bunch of people or shut down the Strait of Hormuz.”
Colbert pushed back, noting that critics, including the current president, have argued the nuclear agreement was ineffective.
“Our present president believed that it didn’t work, which is why he pulled out of it,” he said.
“It’s not clear that he didn’t believe that it didn’t work. He just said it didn’t work,” Obama responded.
“Worst deal of all time,” Colbert added, referencing Trump’s previous comments about the deal.
Obama then hit back with a sharp four-word put-down.
“Because I did it,” he said. “Which is fine. That seems to be a pattern.”
Trump has repeatedly criticized the Iran nuclear deal, arguing it failed to stop Tehran’s nuclear ambitions without presenting evidence that the agreement was ineffective in its core goal of limiting enrichment.
Any future agreement between the U.S. and Iran is likely to resemble key elements of the 2015 nuclear deal, with discussions including the lifting of economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limiting the nation’s uranium enrichment program.
But there are no signs that a deal will be reached any time soon, as negotiations between the two countries have stalled.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday rejected President Trump’s latest proposal to end the war, insisting Tehran would “never bow” to U.S. demands to halt uranium enrichment and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump blasted Iran’s response as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE” on Truth Social.
