Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the US was pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, a move that had shocked...almost nobody.
Trump's opposition to the Iran deal has been one of his most consistent foreign policy positions. Since taking office, he's issued waivers for US sanctions against Iran only reluctantly, and US allies who helped craft the deal have spent months trying to convince him to stick around but to no avail.
So here's a trip down memory lane, via Trump's Twitter account, to a sampling of the times he made it pretty dang clear that negotiating with Iran was best left to the expert — him.
1. There was one of his first tweets on Iran back in 2011 — implying that Iran should be bombed if it didn't give up its nuclear program.
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2. Then by the next year, he was very convinced it was the right time for a deal.
3. That...didn't last long, as he slammed the initial 2013 short-term deal that said Iran would freeze its program while negotiations took place.
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4.
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6. As negotiations continued in 2015, by which point he was running for president, he became ~increasingly~ convinced that the best course was...to double the sanctions already in place.
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8.
9. Then once the deal was official on July 14, he waited two whole days before announcing his complete opposition.
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10. He even predicted the deal would "lead to at least partial world destruction."
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12.
13. The tweets didn't stop in 2016, as Trump continued to rail about just how unfair the deal was and that it didn't prevent Iran from capturing US sailors near the Strait of Hormuz.
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14.
(He also overstated the amount of money Iran had returned to it in the deal — it was $100 billion, all of it Iranian assets that were previously frozen.)
15. He also continued to harangue the deal once taking office, infamously putting Iran "on notice" for testing a missile soon after he was inaugurated.
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16.
(Again, the amount was $100 billion of Iran's own money, not $150 billion — with an estimated $55 billion available to Tehran once it had paid off other obligations.)
17. He also used what turned out to be a faked Iranian missile launch to slam the deal.
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18. There were all the times he bludgeoned Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, over the Iran deal...
(Even though Corker opposed the deal and voted against it...)
19. ...and doling out some wallops to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as well.
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20. He announced a "new strategy" on Iran last October, taking the time to swipe at the deal and its supporters.
21. Trump also tweeted his support of Iranian protesters in the streets earlier this year, saying the government is "failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration."
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22. Trump tweeted in February about his continuing shock that the US paid $1.7 billion to Iran without investigation...despite the fact that the amount was actually owed to Iran.
Iran bought weapons worth $400 million from the US right before the revolution in 1979. Those weapons were never delivered, so the US and Iran agreed to return the money plus interest, totaling $1.7 billion.
23. And just days ago, Trump took the time to go after former secretary of state John Kerry for trying behind the scenes to save the deal.
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