Fox News’ Marc Thiessen criticized the Trump administration over the major cash infusion it is offering the Iranian regime during a Monday afternoon conversation with Martha MacCallum.

After playing a clip of Vice President JD Vance arguing that the Memorandum of Understanding he struck with the Iranians will not lead to a boon in funding for Islamic terrorism, MacCallum noted that billions of dollars in Iranian cash have been frozen around the world, prompting Thiessen to weigh in.

“Yes, absolutely. And look, I think it’s better that it go to American farmers than Iranian terrorist regime. And I understand that they’re not going to give it to them until they’ve performed for it. But what about American victims of terror? There are more than 90 judgments against the Iranian regime of over 50 billion dollars. Maybe we should make those people whole before we start giving money to the Iranian regime, even as part of a nuclear deal,” argued Thiessen. “And then the other thing is that we’ve lifted sanctions now for them for the sale of oil, including in U.S. dollars. So they are going to get a major cash infusion during the course of this negotiation process, and that money isn’t going to go to buy food for the Iranian people. It’s going to towards the reconstruction and rehabilitation of their regime.”

MacCallum followed up by playing a clip of Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT) warning that the Iranians “want to wipe our civilization off the map,” and “buy time” rather than “negotiate.”

“Is he right about that?” she asked.

“Senator Sheehy is 100% correct. And look, Donald Trump has done more damage to the Iranian nuclear program than any president in history. I mean, if you just think about four presidents said they were gonna stop around getting a nuclear weapon, he’s the only one who ever did anything about it. He’s completely destroyed their-,buried their nuclear program in in rubble. They can’t get to it. Their centrifuges are damaged or destroyed, their conversion facilities are damaged or destroyed. Together with Israel, they’ve killed the top nuclear scientists. So he has set back the Iranian nuclear program dramatically. And so the goal should be to lock in those gains and make sure that they don’t reconstitute and rebuild it,” answered Thiessen. “The problem with a deal, even a good deal, is that they may go along with the deal for two and a half years while President Trump is president, and then as soon as they had a weak president like Obama or Biden back in office, they’ll start cheating on it, and we will have given them hundreds, potentially hundreds, there’s in the MOU, I know it’s not American money, but $300 billion fund for the reconstruction of Iran, which is double the Marshall Plan in today’s dollars. That is a massive amount of money that should never go to the Iranian regime under any circumstances, even if they let us come in and take the dust back to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. So you don’t want the deal to undo the incredible things that President Trump has done in terms of setting back the Iranian nuclear program. That’s the danger we’re in.”

His commentary is particularly notable given his influence over the Trump administration’s foreign policy and personal relationship with the president himself.

“Post opinion editor Adam O’Neal has told journalists that Thiessen’s calls with Trump regarding Ukraine were influential in persuading Trump to continue to take the country’s side in the conflict in the face of some Republicans pushing for a quick settlement with Russia, people familiar with the Post’s internal conversations said. Thiessen similarly told colleagues at the Post that he believed his columns were shaping Trump’s thinking on the war in Ukraine,” reported Semafor’s Max Tani last month. “Last year, Trump invited him to have dinner with their respective wives at the White House. Thiessen has told people at the Post that after one phone call with Trump, the president complimented the attractiveness of Thiessen’s wife.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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