Donald Trump lambasted the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which placed severe restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. He called it “one of the most incompetently drawn deals I’ve ever seen.” After he unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018, he assured Americans that he would forge a far better deal than his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Eight years on, following the joint attack launched by the United States and Israel against Iran last February, Trump was presented with a tangible opportunity to make good on his boast.

He appears to have failed.

Although he and Vice President JD Vance have lauded the memorandum of understanding as a stellar diplomatic achievement, their upbeat assessment has been vigorously challenged, particularly in Israel.

While Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, endorsed it, he claimed that Trump made the deal out of “desperation.” Iran’s lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, likened it to a “record of US failure. People will see it and judge.”

Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist, basically agrees with their verdict. In a June 19 piece, he wrote, “Trump sold out America’s ally in the war, Israel, and the Arab Gulf states for the swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan. Trump knew that the food inflation and high gasoline prices triggered by this war were a prescription for a Republican wipeout in the midterms. He had to stop the war now to get prices down by November …  So, Trump did what he always does: He abandoned all principle and all allies and put his personal interests above all other considerations.”

Friedman has a valid point.

Trump started the war with two assumptions. He expected it to last no more than six weeks. He assumed it would not have a detrimental effect on the US and global economies. And he thought he would coast to an untrammeled victory over Iran.

The resilient Iranian regime shattered his preconceived notions. The United States and Israel were militarily successful, pummeling Iranian targets day and night in devastating air strikes, but Iran did not submit to defeat. Indeed, Iranian leaders refused to bow to Trump’s demand for “unconditional surrender.” Furthermore, they seemed in no hurry to end the war and begin negotiations, greatly frustrating Trump.

Despite his threats and blustery rhetoric, Trump knew that the longer the war went on, the worse his political standing in the United States would be. With oil, natural gas, fertilizer and food prices rising exponentially after Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz early in the war, Trump effectively lost control of its dire economic consequences.

Judging by public opinion polls, Trump was acutely aware that the war was unpopular with at least 60 percent........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)