In 2015, the United States, under President Barack Obama, negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) alongside China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom. This agreement lifted economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for limits to Iran’s nuclear program. In 2018, President Donald J. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA, and the agreement fell apart.
“Trump launched a ‘maximum pressure campaign’ of stronger sanctions to pressure Iran to renegotiate the JCPOA, which lasted throughout his first term. Back in office, Trump relaunched that campaign in February 2025. Then, in March 2025, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told Congress that the assessment of the Intelligence Community was that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon.
In the same month, Trump said on the Fox News Channel that he had written a letter to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urging the Iranians to negotiate ‘because if we have to go in militarily it’s going to be a terrible thing for them.’ Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Iran would not ‘enter any direct negotiations with the U.S. so long as they continue their maximum pressure policy and their threats.’”
What does all of this mean? It means that Trump is bringing us closer and closer to involvememt in an unnecesary and, surely, neverending war. To satisfy his ego, Trump is upending foreign aggreements in order to claim his stake and take control.
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