Barack Obama — the man who gift-wrapped $150 billion in sanctions relief to the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism — has emerged from his Netflix cocoon to inform us that President Trump's new Iran deal probably won't beat the masterpiece he cooked up in 2015. Yes, really. The architect of the JCPOA is grading papers now.
Imagine burning down a restaurant and then leaving a one-star Yelp review for the place that replaced it. That's Obama on Iran policy.
The former president dropped this gem on June 14, apparently unable to let Trump have a single diplomatic win without inserting himself into the conversation. His exact words: "It is doubtful that any agreement that arises is going to be significantly different or a significant improvement from the deal that we had in the first place." The deal that we had in the first place. He said that with a straight face. The deal that expired, accomplished nothing permanent, and left Iran closer to a nuclear weapon than before.
But wait — Obama wasn't done lecturing. He also blessed us with this nugget of wisdom: "The notion that we can just bully our way or bomb our way to solutions may sometimes seem appealing, but the fact of the matter is that taking the time to explore diplomacy and exhaust the possibilities of coming up with deals that don't solve 100% of the problem but solve 80%, 90% of the problem, while avoiding the necessity of going to war." Eighty to ninety percent. His deal solved approximately zero percent, unless you count "making Iran richer" as a solution.
Here's what actually happened this week while Obama was busy being jealous. The United States and Iran announced an agreement to end hostilities, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and begin follow-up technical talks. President Trump authorized ending the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz — a tangible, strategic move that reopens one of the most critical shipping lanes on the planet. Full details of the agreement haven't been released yet, and it remains unclear whether new restrictions on Iran's nuclear program or its enriched uranium stockpile will be included.
That's called progress. Messy, incomplete, real-world progress. Not a Rose Garden photo op followed by pallets of cash on a runway in the middle of the night.
Let's remember what Obama's 2015 JCPOA actually delivered. Iran got $150 billion in sanctions relief. They got pallets of physical cash flown in on unmarked planes. And in return, we got... sunset clauses. Temporary restrictions that were already expiring by the time Trump withdrew in 2018. Iran used that money to fund Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. The missiles that have been flying through the Middle East for years — Obama helped pay for those.
And now this guy wants to tell us that Trump's deal is "unlikely" to be better. As reported by Newsmax, Obama is positioning himself as the voice of reason on Iran diplomacy, which is like the Titanic's captain offering sailing tips.
The jealous ex-president routine is getting old. Obama can't stand that Trump might actually pull off what he couldn't — a deal with real consequences and real leverage, not just a press release and a Nobel Prize wish list. Every time Trump closes a deal, Obama materializes like a ghost at a wedding to remind everyone he did it first. No, Barack. You didn't do it first. You did it wrong.
One president gave Iran $150 billion and got nothing that lasted. The other just reopened a shipping lane and brought Iran to the table without a single pallet of cash. One of these guys is salty, and it's not the one in the White House.