Trump’s Desire for a Better Deal With Iran Could Isolate the U.S.

Trump wants a better deal. He wants to extend the time frame on Iran’s compliance. He wants expanded access to military sites. He says it must stop testing ballistic missiles, which were not part of the deal, and halt its support for organizations that Washington classifies as terrorist groups, like Hizbollah and Hamas. Politically, Trump wants to show that Obama made a bad deal and he can make a better one.

The President’s key Cabinet members don’t agree. Defense Secretary James Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Oct. 3 that he thinks the U.S. should stick with the deal. Trump’s bigger problem is that U.S. allies don’t agree with him either. They say that Iran has kept its side of the bargain and don’t want to see their hard work torn up. If Trump walks away, he’ll probably walk alone. The Europeans could even decide to continue to honor the deal’s terms, vindicating Iran and creating a rift between the U.S. and Europe even bigger than the one that followed George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003. (Though Bush, at least, had backing from the U.K.’s Tony Blair.)

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