We Really Fucked This Iran Thing
Hot take: Trump was bad at President
Trump’s approach to policy was obviously just “undo everything Obama did.” In the foreign policy realm, some people hilariously tried to articulate a “Trump Doctrine”, which I saw as putting lipstick, false eyelashes, stiletto heels, and a $10,000 Versace dress on a pig. People who pretended that Trump’s policy choices followed some profound logic were like a modern artist who fills a kiddie pool with bottle caps and tartar sauce and says: “It’s a comment on the Information Age.” Fuck you, we all see what you’re doing. Stop trying to trick people.
Trump’s most consequential policy choice might end up being his decision to “rip up” the Iran Deal in 2018. Since he did that, Iran has made significant progress towards a bomb. Biden restarted talks, but they’ve stalled. That’s mostly because Iran has a new hard-line government, though it certainly doesn’t help that, since the US is no longer a party to the treaty, we are literally not in the room; the parties negotiate and then European diplomats walk down the street to tell us what happened. Which, as anyone who’s ever played “telephone” knows, is a great way for “uranium enrichment will stop at four percent” to turn into “your anus is a pup tent that’s hot sauce for peppermint.” So good luck unraveling that, Antony Blinken.
It didn’t need to be this way. We had a deal that was working; now, we’ll be lucky to get back to where we were six years ago. Some people who cheered when Trump rejected the deal now feel that was a mistake. It’s worth taking a look at where we are and thinking about the mistakes that brought us here.