In withdrawing from the Iran nuke deal, the U.S. did not breach a commitment of the United States.
The Trump administration reversed a non-binding, ephemeral policy preference of Barack Obama, who refused to submit the deal as a Treaty under Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution. Had the nuke deal been a treaty, it would have been the supreme law of the land.
Nor was the Iran nuke deal entered into with the consent of Congress, by treaty or otherwise, or under any other authority that made it irrevocable.
Senator Ben Sasse put it perfectly:
The Iran deal has always been terrible. Today is a reminder that if you live by the Presidency, you die by the Presidency. We ought to be clear about this: Donald Trump isn’t ripping up a treaty; he’s walking away from Barack Obama’s personal pledge. Two and a half years ago, President Obama made a bad deal with Iran without support from Congress, and today President Trump is pulling out of President Obama’s personal commitment, and he doesn’t need Congress’s support to do so. American foreign policy makes lasting progress when it is led by the President, approved by Congress, and presented honestly to the American people.
This is another example of Obama’s sandcastles washing away with a new administration. Obama bragged how he would use his pen and his phone to go around Congress on a host of international and domestic issues.
In so doing Obama left most of his legacy at the mercy of the pen and the phone of his successor. Had that successor been Hillary, Obama’s legacy would have been secure. A disaster for our country, but secure.
But Obama’s successor wasn’t Hillary. And Obama’s legacy is washing away.
Trump was right to dump the Iran Deal just like with the Paris Accord its a very bad deal We refuse to buy the democrats snake oil their selling
Like Obama usually did, in the Iran Deal, he made sure most of the damage was done all up front so successors would be reluctant to dispose of it, since little immediate gain could be accomplished. He submitted to all Iranian demands, paid all the money up front and removed all the sanctions at once instead of incrementally as Iranians honored the deal… which, since they got everything they demanded, they probably couldn’t violate if they tried.
Obama has tried to protect his legacy, like Obamacare, immigration and the Iran Deal, by making them too painful, almost as painful as leaving them in place, to reverse. Trump sees beyond the damage and sees a point where the damage is reversed and progress is made again.
Isn’t it odd that the Iranians can fire up their enrichment program, that was dismantled and all the ore sent to Russia, in a couple of weeks?
Not every campaign speech, but several times on the stump, candidate Trump said plainly that he would hold up talks with hostage-holding nations until we got our hostages all back.
In North Korea he just proved his logic worked:
He’d say, “We want them, you don’t need them, & they’ll be no talks unless we get them.”
I’ll be up at midnight (our time) to watch President Trump meet these 3 ex-hostages at Andrews’ Air Base tonight.
Later, the Trump/Kim Jong Un talks will be interesting.
@Nanny G: How many pallets of cash did Trump send to get the hostages released?
Here;s a little nugget.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3334249/State-Department-says-Iran-NEVER-SIGNED-nuclear-deal-s-not-legally-binding-tells-Congress-butt-Obama-s-political-commitments.html