Associated Press Former President Barack Obama speaks during the dedication ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center, Thursday, June 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Former President Barack Obama is on the outside looking in — and he doesn’t like it one bit.
Like last year’s prom queen who refuses to relinquish her crown, Obama is sniping about President Trump’s new deal with Iran, claiming it is “doubtful” it will be “significantly different” or a “significant improvement” from the nuclear agreement he reached with Iran in 2015, which Trump ditched in 2018.
Obama further mused that his own nuclear deal had “worked for … a long stretch of time before we, the United States, pulled out of it.” This conveniently ignores that Iran cheated on that accord from the very beginning, mainly because its inspection requirements were inadequate. Iran’s military facilities, for example, were off limits to the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors. It turned out the mullahs’ illegal weapons development and enrichment were hidden in those military outposts.
In reality, Obama’s deal was not working, and Obama knew it.
In 2016, writing for the Council on Foreign Relations, Elliott Abrams cited a report from Germany’s domestic intelligence agency on Iran’s “clandestine” efforts to obtain illicit nuclear technology and equipment from German companies “at what is, even by international standards, a quantitatively high level.” At the time, Abrams noted, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reported to parliament that Iran had violated the United Nations Security Council’s anti-missile development regulations: “Iran continued unabated to develop its rocket program in conflict with the relevant provisions of the U.N. Security Council.”
Another report, from the Institute for Science and International Security, confirmed that Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization attempted to purchase tons of carbon fiber, goods necessary to producing advanced centrifuge rotors, just a few weeks after the deal with Obama had been implemented. Abrams concludes: “So Iran isn’t only being more aggressive since the signing of [the agreement] — in Iraq and Syria, for example, or in cyber attacks on the United States — but is also cheating on the deal.”
He also accused the powers that signed on to the agreement of being complicit in hiding Iran’s misbehavior from the public, for fear of being embarrassed. He also noted with disgust the complete silence coming from the Obama administration and others who had avidly supported the deal.
That wasn’t the only indication that Iran had zero intention of living up to its end of the deal. The New York Times reported in 2015, even before final sign-off on the deal, but while an interim agreement was in place, that the IAEA had found that Iran’s “stockpile of nuclear fuel increased about 20 percent over the last 18 months.”
Hudson Institute fellow Lee Smith at the time wrote, “Instead of holding Iran to its part of the bargain, the White House makes excuses when Iran cheats — and beats up on U.S. journalists and the U.N. agency that is responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear program.”
Smith recounts that former U.S. ambassador and seasoned Middle East expert James Jeffrey told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “if Tehran’s path to the bomb isn’t stopped through an agreement, the United States must be ready ‘to use force if Iran approaches a nuclear weapons capability.'”
How prescient. As multiple sources concluded in 2025 that Iran had the ability to produce 11 nuclear weapons, with only one or two weeks’ lead time, Trump did just that, bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities last summer.
There were plenty of reasons for Trump to jettison Obama’s old deal, but the biggest was that it provided Iran a pathway to a bomb as various provisions of the deal expired. Indeed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued before Congress that the deal would not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons but would in fact all but guarantee that outcome. He noted that Iran’s nuclear infrastructure remained in place, its centrifuges continued to spin and that the breakout time for obtaining a bomb would shrink. He was right.
Today, commentators on the left and right have slammed Trump’s nascent deal with Iran, with some claiming that the war has made Iran stronger. That’s ridiculous.
Iran is flat on its back. Its economy is in tatters, its currency without value; its inflation sky-high and much of the country’s infrastructure has been reduced to rubble. The International Monetary Fund estimates that Iran’s already-fragile economy will shrink by 6 percent this year. Moreover, as Trump is always quick to point out, Iran’s military has been decimated, its navy destroyed and its missile and drone stockpiles depleted. Many of its leading politicians and administrators have also been eliminated.
In addition, the bombing of enrichment facilities at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan left Iran’s nuclear program crippled. The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog group said after the June 2025 attack that the agency had “seen extensive damage at several nuclear sites in Iran,” while Israel claimed it set back Iran’s nuclear program by “many years.“
Realistically, Trump is negotiating from a position of strength. The Iranians know this. They are also aware that voters in the U.S. are unhappy about the price of gasoline, and that opening of the Strait of Hormuz will lower the cost of that essential product. Consequently, both sides have compelling reasons to come to the bargaining table. In coming weeks, as the propaganda machine in Iran is supplanted by facts and the negotiating leads to actual agreements, we will have a clearer view of the concessions both sides have made.
As the cacophony of criticism flows, remember that Democrats are panicked that Trump’s prospects, and the outlook for Republican success in the midterms, will improve as gasoline prices drift lower. Just yesterday, three supertankers from Saudi Arabia loaded with 6 million barrels of oil crossed the Strait of Hormuz; oil prices are now down 34 percent from the April peak. Inflation will follow a similar trajectory in the coming months, ushering in a torrent of good news for U.S. consumers.
Obama and his Democratic colleagues probably won’t like that, either.
Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim and Company.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Angela Merkel Barack Obama Benjamin Netanyahu Donald Trump elliott abrams Iran Iran deal James Jeffrey JCPOA Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Nuclear weapons ObamaCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Comments: Link copiedMore Opinions - National Security News
See All
Opinions - National Security Putin’s reign begins to crumble by Jonathan Sweet and Mark Toth, opinion contributors 1 day ago Opinions - National Security / 1 day ago 
