President Donald Trump blamed “bad press” for American skepticism over his interim deal with Iran, even after being reminded of a comment he made in 2020, asserting that Iran has “never lost a negotiation.”
Trump's Past Words Come Back to Haunt Him
“A wise man once said, ‘Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation,’” Fox News reporter Peter Doocy reminded Trump of his past words during Wednesday’s G7 press conference. “How do you go back to the U.S. and convince a skeptical American public that this deal is a win?” Doocy asked.
Trump argued this time is different. “Well, here they lost militarily,” he said of why he thinks this time is different. He went on to claim that no matter the outcome, some news outlets will paint the memorandum of understanding as an abject failure. “No matter what I do, I’m going to get bad press,” he said of reporters who were provided a draft of the agreement on Wednesday, following days of secrecy.
Details of the Agreement
“There’s nothing I can do, but what this does is, it allows the ships to go. If we keep bombing, those ships won’t be going, and we’re talking about 500, 600, 700 million dollars a day. That’s a lot of money,” he said of one part of the agreement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz toll-free for two months. Sanctions on Iranian oil exports would also be lifted, and Iran would be given access to a $300 billion reconstruction fund. More or less, the deal reached will bring both sides back to where they were before the war started.
Republican Backlash
Several Republicans have already blasted the pact as a failure. “This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) wrote on the social platform X. “Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future. Now, Iran gets to build brand-new infrastructure under this deal,” he wrote. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also questioned who helped Trump with the deal. “History teaches that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is not a good idea. I think the president is receiving some very poor advice on this deal,” he told The Hill.
