See what Donald Trump and the 2016 Republican Platform said about Iran and the Iran nuclear deal below.
CANDIDATE SUMMARY
Trump opposed the nuclear agreement with Iran. He said that he would renegotiate the deal or "dismantle" it as president.
Republican Party Trump on Iran and the Iran nuclear deal
During a campaign event in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on September 6, 2016, Donald Trump said that Iran was not a threat to the world until President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran, which made the country a "world power." He said, "If you take a look at Iran from four, five years ago they were dying. They had sanctions, they were being choked to death and they were dying. They weren't even going to be much of a threat. They didn't have anything going and now they're a power. Overnight, we've made them a power." He then called the nuclear deal "the highest level of incompetence."[9]
After Reuters reported that the "United States and its negotiating partners agreed 'in secret' to allow Iran to evade some restrictions" required by the nuclear agreement, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, a Trump foreign policy adviser, issued the following statement on September 1, 2016: “The deeply flawed nuclear deal Hillary Clinton secretly spearheaded with Iran looks worse and worse by the day. It’s now clear President Obama gave away the store to secure a weak agreement that is full of loopholes, never ultimately blocks Iran from nuclear weapons, emboldens our enemies and funds terrorism. Just last week, Iran once again took advantage of this and deployed a sophisticated Russian-made air defense system around one of its enrichment sites that directly challenges the U.S. position that all options are on the table. Hillary Clinton’s continued support of this dangerous deal, which undermines the long-term security interests of the United States and Israel, shows just how bad her judgment really is.”[10]
On August 3, 2016, after The Wall Street Journal published a story explaining that the administration sent "[w]ooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies" to Iran "on an unmarked cargo plane" just before four Americans were released from an Iranian prison, Trump tweeted: "Our incompetent Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was the one who started talks to give 400 million dollars, in cash, to Iran. Scandal!"[11]
In a fact-checking article, The Associated Press wrote, "Trump is wrong about Clinton's involvement. The $400 million payment — plus $1.3 billion in interest to be paid later — is a separate issue from the Iran nuclear deal that Clinton initiated. The process that resulted in the payout started decades before she became secretary of state."[12]
During an interview with The Daily Caller on July 4, 2016, Dr. Walid Phares, one of Trump’s top foreign policy advisers, said that Trump would not get rid of the nuclear deal with Iran. Phares said, "No, he’s not going to get rid of an agreement that has the institutional signature of the United States. He is a man of institutions. But he’s going to look back on it the institutional way. He’s said, so far that he doesn’t like this deal and that it was poorly negotiated. Once elected, he’s going to renegotiate it after talking through it with his advisers. One of the clear possibilities is he will send it back to Congress. The reaction of the Iranian leadership will be the next phase. So he is not going to implement it as is, he is going to revise it after negotiating one on one with Iran or with a series of allies.”[13]
On April 27, 2016, Trump explained his views on a variety of foreign policy issues, including the nuclear deal with Iran. He said, "We’ve had a president who dislikes our friends and bows to our enemies. He negotiated a disastrous deal with Iran, and then we watched them ignore its terms, even before the ink was dry. Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and, under a Trump Administration, will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. All of this without even mentioning the humiliation of the United States with Iran’s treatment of our ten captured sailors. In negotiation, you must be willing to walk. The Iran deal, like so many of our worst agreements, is the result of not being willing to leave the table. When the other side knows you’re not going to walk, it becomes absolutely impossible to win."[14]
During a speech at AIPAC's Policy Conference, Trump explained how he would deal with Iran as president. He said, "My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran. I have been in business a long time. I know deal-making and let me tell you, this deal is catastrophic - for America, for Israel, and for the whole Middle East. The problem here is fundamental. We have rewarded the world's leading state sponsor of terror with $150 billion and we received absolutely nothing in return. I've studied this issue in greater detail than almost anybody. The biggest concern with the deal is not necessarily that Iran is going to violate it, although it already has, the bigger problem is that they can keep the terms and still get to the bomb by simply running out the clock, and, of course, they keep the billions. The deal doesn’t even require Iran to dismantle its military nuclear capability! Yes, it places limits on its military nuclear program for only a certain number of years. But when those restrictions expire, Iran will have an industrial-size military nuclear capability ready to go, and with zero provision for delay no matter how bad Iran's behavior is. When I am president, I will adopt a strategy that focuses on three things when it comes to Iran. First, we will stand up to Iran’s aggressive push to destabilize and dominate the region. Iran is a very big problem and will continue to be, but if I'm elected President, I know how to deal with trouble. ... Secondly, we will totally dismantle Iran’s global terror network. Iran has seeded terror groups all over the world. During the last five years, Iran has perpetrated terror attacks in 25 different countries on five continents. They’ve got terror cells everywhere, including in the western hemisphere very close to home. Iran is the biggest sponsor of terrorism around the world and we will work to dismantle that reach. Third, at the very least, we must hold Iran accountable by restructuring the terms of the previous deal. Iran has already - since the deal is in place - test-fired ballistic missiles three times. Those ballistic missiles, with a range of 1,250 miles, were designed to intimidate not only Israel, which is only 600 miles away but also intended to frighten Europe, and, someday, the United States."[15]
On September 8, 2015, Trump authored an article for USA Today criticizing the Iran nuclear deal. “It was amateur hour for those charged with striking this deal with Iran, demonstrating to the world, yet again, the total incompetence of our president and politicians. It appears we wanted a deal at any cost rather than following the advice of Ronald Reagan and walking away because ‘no deal is better than a bad deal.' ... When I am elected president, I will renegotiate with Iran — right after I enable the immediate release of our American prisoners and ask Congress to impose new sanctions that stop Iran from having the ability to sponsor terrorism around the world. In fact, if I am elected, I am sure the prisoners will be released before my taking office.[16]
In an interview with the Daily Caller published on September 7, 2015, Trump said of the Iran nuclear deal, "If somebody was telling me about how bad the contract is and how they hate the country — how do you sign a contract like this? And that’s the least of it. The contract is a disaster in virtually every way, and one way that people haven’t even talked about: they have an attack clause. If anybody attacks them, we have to protect them. What happens if Israel attacks them? Nobody has been able to answer that question yet, including [Secretary of State John] Kerry."[17]
During Trump's speech announcing his candidacy for president on June 16, 2015, he suggested that a deal with Iran regarding nuclear weapons could destroy Israel.[18]
In March 2015, when asked on "The O'Reilly Factor" why he thought negotiations with Iran were failing, Trump said the deal was taking too long to complete. Pointing to the Bowe Bergdahl exchange, Trump said the Iranians were "great negotiators" and the Obama administration contained "terrible negotiators." He also said that sanctions should have been doubled or tripled prior to negotiation and that Secretary of State John Kerry might have to walk away from the negotiating table.[19]
In his 2011 book, Time to Get Tough, Trump stated, "America's primary goal with Iran must be to destroy its nuclear ambitions. Let me put them as plainly as I know how: Iran's nuclear program must be stopped–by any and all means necessary. Period. We cannot allow this radical regime to acquire a nuclear weapon that they will either use or hand off to terrorists."[20]
