“The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal,” President Donald Trump tweeted yesterday. “He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!” The president was referring, of course, to recent attempts by the former secretary of state to shore up support for the Iran nuclear deal on which the Trump administration is markedly skeptical. In recent days Kerry has met with (among others) French president Emmanuel Macron, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, and Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif.

We’ll leave legal scholars to debate whether Kerry’s busybody diplomacy is “illegal,” i.e.whether it violates the 1799 Logan Act barring unauthorized negotiations with foreign powers. Otherwise it’s hard to disagree with the president. Kerry, together with Barack Obama, is chiefly responsible for what was in our view a grossly misguided agreement with one of the world’s foremost sponsors of terrorism. The 2015 agreement enriched the Iranian regime in exchange for vain promises not to pursue its nuclear weapons program, all while turning a blind eye to Iran’s malevolent behavior throughout the Middle East and beyond.