Lauren Simonetti spoke to former Trump advisor and State Department official Christian Whiton about the administration’s emerging deal with Iran and asked for his take on former President Barack Obama’s recent criticism.

Whiton offered his take on the shortcomings of Trump’s current position in the negotiations and acknowledged he believes the president arrives “politically weakened” at the G7 in Europe.

“Obviously, the Iranians are very much attuned to this and, you know, if you just step back, they’re in a strong political position,” he argued, adding:

The president started this war by saying, “Iranians, rise up,” but they haven’t done that, nor have we taken any simple steps to make that happen. Trump is once again friends with Elon Musk, now the world’s first trillionaire. They could have been jamming Starlink terminals, putting them into the hands of dissidents in Iran, taking other steps to promote a dissent movement, but seemed to do nothing of that sort. And so Trump arrives, you know, somewhat frankly, politically weakened when he gets to Paris this week.

“Meanwhile, Barack Obama is casting doubt on any deal President Trump does reach, suggesting it might not be much different from what he did during his time as president. Listen here, and then I’ll get your reaction, Christian,” added Simonetti, playing a clip from Obama on ABC over the weekend:

It is doubtful that any agreement that arises is going to be significantly different from, or a significant improvement on, the deal that we had in the first place and had worked for for a long stretch of time before the United States pulled out of it. The notion that we can just bully our way or bomb our way to solutions may sometimes seem appealing, but the fact of the matter is that taking the time to explore diplomacy and exhaust the possibilities of coming up with deals that don’t solve 100% of the problem — while avoiding the necessity of going to war — is worthwhile.

“Christian, there are differences between this, potentially, and the JCPOA — like no sunset clauses, like a verification mechanism, no payment until you prove that you’re living up to the deal. What are your thoughts?” Simonetti followed up.
“That’s right. This deal is very different. But again, President Trump and JD Vance, who’s been his point man on this — the one who’s urged diplomacy and brought Pakistan and Qatar to the fore of this as our partners — really haven’t explained it,” Whiton replied, adding:

The payola is there, actually. Now, it’s not going to be pallets of cash, which is what Obama sent to the Iranians as an inducement to sign the deal. But the belief on Capitol Hill — which I have from usually reliable sources — is that $12 billion in sanctions relief will be released just for saying we have a deal. It’s not going to be conditioned on removal of the nuclear material or anything.

So Trump should explain that the means of enriching the HEU, the centrifuge cascades, are being destroyed. It’s sensitive equipment. That’s a big deal. That’s the difference between this and the Obama deal, which enshrined Iran’s nuclear program by letting them have the means for enrichment and by sunsetting. But it takes more than a couple of social media tweets and some desultory press conferences to get this across the finish line.

Watch the clip above via Fox Business.

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