Transcription
Which Donald Trump has agreed in writing to give Iran more than 100 times the amount of money that was sent to Iran by the Obama administration.
"UNITED STATES OF AMERICA UNDERTAKES TO MAKE FULLY AVAILABLE FOR USE THE FROZEN OR RESTRICTED FUNDS AND ASSETS OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN UPON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS MEMO OF UNDERSTANDING."
How much money is that? $100 billion, the first payment of which will be $24 billion directly from Donald Trump to Iran. And that's not all. The Trump agreement says the United States of America undertakes with regional partners to develop a definitive mutually agreed plan with at at least $300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
One right-wing Trump supporter said today, "$300 billion to Iran under any circumstances is a disaster, like offering the Marshall Plan to rebuild Germany while the Nazis were still in power."
Here was Donald Trump's defense. "Well, the unfreezing is an easy one to answer. We have taken a lot of their money, and we have their money. We have taken their money. It's not our money. It's their money. And we froze it at a certain point in time. I guess we're going to have to give it back. So now it's their money, it's not our money, we're gonna have to give it back."
That was exactly the situation he's describing the situation President Obama faced with a tiny amount of money compared to what Donald Trump is giving Iran now. Donald Trump was doing exactly the same thing he has condemned President Obama for doing, but Donald Trump is giving Iran much, much, much more money.
Donald Trump has already violated his own agreement with Iran. In fact, he violated the very first sentence of the agreement when he threatened to bomb Iran several times today in his comments. If Iran doesn't come up with an even better version of this agreement down the road, the first sentence of Donald Trump's agreement with Iran tonight says that both countries must, as of tonight, refrain from the threat or use of force against each other. So a threat is a violation of the first sentence of Donald Trump's agreement with Iran, and he's already violated that part of the agreement. He's already threatening them.
Donald Trump at first tried to deny that the United States would be involved in any way in the $300 billion fund that the deal promises for Iran. But the deal says very clearly in writing that the United States of America, quote, "undertakes with regional partners to develop a $300 billion fund."
Not only is there nothing about the regime change that Donald Trump said he wanted in Iran on the first night of his war, when he called on the people of Iran to rise up against the murderous dictatorship controlling their lives. Now Donald Trump is promising in writing never to interfere in any way in Iran's so-called, quote, "internal affairs."
And then in a complete abandonment of the women who suffer every day under the Islamic Iranian dictatorship, in a complete abandonment of every person in Iran who craves the basic freedoms that other countries enjoy so easily, Donald Trump said this about the murderous dictators who oppress the people of Iran every day. "I think they're smarter. I think they're very smart. I think they're far less radicalized, and I think they're really good. They love their country."
Tell that to the women who get arrested for showing their hair. Tell that to the women who've been killed for showing their hair. Imagine the pain of hearing him say that today in Iran, the dictators who oppress your every breath are described by Donald Trump as people who love their country.
Donald Trump doesn't know any of those dictators. He has never spoken to any of them, he has never seen any of them, he has never been in a room with any of them. But he is declaring in his judgment to the Iranian people that those murderous dictators love their country. He is telling the women of Iran who have spent years rebelling against this murderous dictatorship that their leaders love them. They love their country.
Donald Trump has been at war for 110 days now with people he now says are "really good." Those were his words, "really good," and "they love their country."
Donald Trump's first vice president is accusing Donald Trump of appeasement. That's what Mike Pence is calling this. The worst thing you could be accused of in dealing with Adolf Hitler was appeasement. That's where that word entered our politics, the people who tried to engage in appeasement of Adolf Hitler as he was leading Germany into World War II and an attempted mass execution of every Jewish person in Europe. That was Adolf Hitler's ambition, and there were people who were trying to facilitate that ambition in the United States and in Britain and elsewhere in the world. And they were all correctly adjudged to be engaging in the appeasement of Adolf Hitler. And so, when Mike Pence uses that word appeasement today, he is using it to invoke a direct comparison with negotiating with Nazi Germany.
Donald Trump didn't have to play Barack Obama's game. This was his choice. If Donald Trump was even half-smart, which he is not, he would have recognized that the Obama deal negotiated by John Kerry was the greatest American diplomatic achievement of our lifetimes. And he would have left it in place and benefited hugely from it. But he did the stupidest thing that has been done in American foreign policy in the 21st century and ripped up that deal. And in its place now, we see Donald Trump's appeasement in writing. He never, ever should have tried to play a game that Barack Obama played before him.
What's he gonna try to do next? Sing? "How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once humanity, dignity, and amazing presidential grace. And then came Donald Disgraceful, heartless, vulgarity, relentless stupidity and and cruelty." And it's all there in the record now, it's all there in the video record, it's all there in the written record. Historians now have everything. Everything they need to compare these two presidencies and to compare these two men in every way. And Donald Trump is the loser in that comparison in every possible way.
He wasn't sure this afternoon in France if he would sign the memorandum of understanding with Iran. That left an opening for the Fox-employed bad stand-up comedian who doubles as a White House correspondent to do this. "Why not stick around for the signing ceremony with this Iran peace deal?" "I might." "You might?" "Yeah, I might. But I'd rather this is a memorandum of understanding. It's very important, but it might not be the kind of a document that I should be signing. There's some element to this where you send the vice president. If it works out, great. You'll look like a genius for sending him. And if it doesn't work out, it's the vice president's fault. I like that idea, sure. This way, if it works out, I'm going to take the credit. If it doesn't work out, I'm blaming J.D. You better be careful, J.D." Imagine wasting your presidential question time that way.
But this evening at the French president's dinner table at Versailles, Donald Trump signed what Republicans are calling a surrender document. Right-wing Trump supporter Eric Erickson called it "an American surrender."
Donald Trump sent a New York real estate guy with no government experience to play John Kerry's game, and the Trump clownish negotiator delivered what you'd expect from someone who didn't know what he was doing, from someone who didn't have John Kerry's experience from combat in Vietnam to the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate to Secretary of State. They think it's easy.
In that video you just saw of Donald Trump playing games with the idea of maybe having J.D. Vance sign the document, the most incompetent Commerce Secretary in history, Howard Lutnick, was standing behind Donald Trump doing his usual Lutnick laugh at every inane thing Donald Trump says. But the other person. The other person standing right behind Donald Trump seemed to know what he was watching. The grim face of future presidential candidate Marco Rubio never broke into a smile. Marco Rubio, possibly watching his presidential hopes disappear right there. Usually eager to match Howard Lutnick in court jester worship of Donald Trump, seemed to know just how badly Secretary of State Marco Rubio himself lost at trying to play Secretary of State John Kerry's game.
And so Donald Trump and Marco Rubio have spent years lying about the Obama deal with Iran, and now they have proved two things. Just how strong the Obama deal was, and what complete and utter and relentlessly incompetent losers, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump really are.