The 2016 Republican presidential field has been as unanimously opposed to the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran as Obamacare. Except, perhaps, for front-runner Donald Trump.
Trump has stopped short of saying he would do away with the nuclear agreement on day one of a Trump administration. In an interview with “Meet The Press,” Trump compared the deal to some of the “bad contracts” he’s taken over during his business career, saying he would “police” the deal if it goes through.
“I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘We’re going to rip up the deal.’ It’s very tough to do when you say, ‘Rip up a deal,'” Trump said.
“You know, I’ve taken over some bad contracts. I buy contracts where people screwed up and they have bad contracts,” Trump told Todd. “But I’m really good at looking at a contract and finding things within a contract that, even if they’re bad, I would police that contract so tough that they don’t have a chance. As bad as the contract is, I will be so tough on that contract.”
“And the problem is by the time I got in there, they will have already received the $150 billion,” Trump said. “Do you know if the deal gets rejected they still get the money? Which is something I found out a week ago. I couldn’t believe it. If the deal gets rejected, they still get all of this money. Iran is going to be unbelievably powerful and unbelievably rich.”
Although Trump has consistently bashed the likes of President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry for their negotiating tactics, he hesitated to say if he will eradicate the deal if given the opportunity, although he says it will be “catastrophic” for Israel.
“I certainly sympathize with Trump’s passion about how disastrous the deal is, but bluster isn’t policy,” said Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “Obama has designed the deal to give all the goods up front. Trump has got to realize that when you’ve gone all the way on your first date, simply saying you’re going to walk away with your virginity isn’t going to reflect reality.”
“The question Trump must answer is: if Obama has given $100 billion in sanctions relief, lifted international sanctions, and blessed an industrial-sized nuclear program in Iran, what is he going to do to reverse that?” Rubin asked.
Multiple candidates on the GOP have said they would undo the deal with the Iranians on the spot if elected, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, all candidates for the party’s presidential nomination.
Trump’s recent comments also offer a sharp contrast with his 2007 comments suggesting the U.S. should bomb Iran. Some scholars who are more sympathetic to the Iran deal were cautiously optimistic about Trump’s more recent statements.
“Even though he had previously expressed skepticism about the Iran deal, Trump’s position is more reasonable than the stance taken by some of his GOP competitors,” said Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. “I’ve been puzzled by those who insist they would tear up the agreement as soon as they entered the Oval Office.”
“The agreement will have been in effect for more than a year and a half at the time the new president takes office. Basic prudence would suggest that he or she) should at least evaluate how well the deal is working before abolishing it,” Carpenter added. “Furthermore, the abolitionists evade discussing what their alternative to the current agreement would be — other than making vague comments about seeking a better deal. But the terms that ardent hawks mention are such that no Iranian government would sign such a ‘better deal.'”
“It’s odd, but at least on this issue Trump seems more statesmanlike than most other GOP candidates,” he concluded.
A recent Fox News poll found that 83 percent of Republicans would reject the Iran deal.
