Ten months into his administration, Trump has finally done what he has promised to do since his candidacy, which is to cut ties with the Iran Nuclear deal. While he hasn't officially torn up the contract as he claimed that he would, he has instead, refused to recertify the deal which he signaled he would do during the last recertification process in July. At the time, he reportedly fought with his national security advisers, who told him that Iran was not in violation of the deal.
Trump setting up Congress to withdraw from Iran nuclear deal
However, at the same time, his secretary of state Rex Tillerson, said that Iran had violated the "spirit" of the deal. Prior to the President's announcement of his decision on Friday, Tillerson said that Trump would not withdraw from the deal and that Iran was also not in violation. The process under the agreement has been that every 90 days, the administration is supposed to recertify the deal or not and then inform Congress as to why. But Trump's decision, instead, puts another heap of responsibility on Congress to make the decision for him.
Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) has said that he had a proposal to strengthen the agreement, look for deficiencies and make sure that the administration stayed with it. But the President's statements on Friday appeared to be another effort to eventually undermine the deal despite what Congress tries to do.
Trump's 'deal-making' strategy
Earlier in the week, it was reported that the administration had blamed Corker for the supporting the deal, which was the opposite of the facts. In fact, the Senator was against it and created the 90 day review period in order to make it so that Congress had some say. When the nuclear agreement was made in 2015, former President Obama knew he would not get support from Congress.
The then-secretary of state John Kerry, had spent two-years with members of the international community and the Iranian government to put the agreement together without going through Congress.
President Trump has promoted himself as a great deal-maker and over his first year as president, he has shown anything but interest to make deals. Instead, he has threatened to and pulled the US away from deals such as the Paris Climate Agreement, which isn't official until November 2020. He has also threatened to pull away from the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, as well as the Free Trade Agreement with South Korea. The President said that if Congress was not able to come to an agreement with the international community who have also signed onto the deal, then he would cancel it.