Trump faces heavy lift on selling Iran deal 

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▪ Iran deal awaits Trump’s approval▪ Whitmer walks back 2028 comments ▪ ‘60 Minutes’ overhaul ▪ GOP in tough spot over Carroll probe 

President Trump has a tough road ahead as he tries to make the case that his tentative deal with Iran meets his own goals for the war and leaves the U.S. in a better place than where it was three months ago.  

Axios first reported Thursday that the deal — which has yet to secure Trump’s final approval — would be a 60-day memorandum of understanding (MOU) to extend the fragile ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which would begin to relieve the enormous economic pressure facing both Washington and Tehran.   

Iran would agree not to impose tolls on commercial ships trying to cross the key waterway, through which more than 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas supply passes, and Iran would agree to remove all mines from the strait.  

In exchange, the U.S. would lift its naval blockade and issue some sanctions waivers so Iran could freely sell its oil. 

But the tentative deal comes well short of the “unconditional surrender” that Trump has demanded and does not include many of his stated aims for the conflict: limiting Iran’s missile program, removing the hardline regime, ending its support of regional proxies and, perhaps most significantly, preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. 

The MOU would include a commitment from Iran not to pursue a nuclear weapon, but Tehran has made similar assertions for years that have been disputed by nonproliferation experts. The first issues up for negotiation would be how to dispose of Iran’s highly enriched uranium and how to address future enrichment, Axios reported. 

In return, the U.S. would commit to discussing broader sanction relief, Axios reported. It’s unclear if some Iranian funds would be unfrozen as part of the initial deal or left for later talks.  

Either way, the terms have already met resistance from the president’s critics and even some of his hawkish supporters, who see Iran as badly weakened and want Trump to “finish the job,” or at least keep his foot on Tehran’s neck.  

Conservative radio host Erick Erickson criticized the deal, saying in a post on the social platform X that it “would actually just kick the can down the road.” 

Fox News’s Mark Levin responded to the news reports by questioning what the Trump administration would get under the deal “to warrant a massive infusion of funds back into the regime in exchange for talking another 60 days.” 

“They won’t pursue nukes in the meantime?  I thought we would hit them militarily if they were. And they’ll reopen the Strait, so the regime closing it was leveraged by them to get us to the negotiation table?”  

“We are removing the economic and military pressure with only the threat that either or both could resume,” Levin wrote in a post on X, referring to Iran’s nuclear development and control over the Strait of Hormuz. “Why not force concessions before lifting economic pressure?  If they wouldn’t agree then how serious is the regime about making substantive and lasting concessions?” 

Predictably, the criticism from anti-Trump political figures has been even sharper. Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a former Air Force pilot, said there isn’t “one concession Iran has agreed to that wasn’t in place before the war.” 

“Pod Save America,” hosted by former Obama administration aides, headlined its Thursday episode, “Trump CAVES on Iran After Months of Flip-Flops and Threats.”  

One key question will be how much the deal resembles the nuclear deal negotiated during the Obama administration.  

The New York Times, citing three anonymous U.S. officials, reported Thursday that the president is resistant to any deal that could be framed as direct payments to Iran — after years of criticizing the “pallets of cash” delivered to Tehran in 2016 — so his team is developing workarounds to funnel money without direct payments, such as having Qatar release funds to Iran.  

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that no concessions from the U.S. would be considered until Iran agrees to open the strait and give up any nuclear ambitions. 

“Nothing is going to be on the table until we see the Strait of Hormuz open and the Iranians agree that they have to turn over the highly enriched uranium,” he said during a press briefing Thursday. 

▪ The Hill: Five things to know about the tentative ceasefire. 

▪ The Hill: Trump’s hail mary on Abraham Accords falls flat. 

Smart Take with Blake Burman

Opening the Strait of Hormuz remains a key........

© The Hill