President Donald Trump made a string of searing remarks about former President Barack Obama Monday on “Fox & Friends” while arguing that his presidential predecessors all “got tapped along” by Iran.
“If you look for 47 years, they’ve been tapping people along — every president got tapped along, didn’t do anything,” Trump said via phone. “And they became more and more powerful. This should have been done 47 years ago, shouldn’t have been allowed to start. But [former President Bill] Clinton let them go, and [former President George W.] Bush let them go.”
Trump then launched into an attack against Obama.
Calling Obama “the worst of all,” Trump accused him of having gone to Iran’s “side” with his nuclear deal in 2015.
“You know he’s a… well… let’s not say,” the president said, appearing to hold back a defamatory blow. “Let’s not say, let’s leave that for another time. He was terrible.”
Trump’s illusory restraint was short-lived as he quickly went on to criticize Obama further.
“He gave them $1.7 billion in cash, in green cash, put in satchels in an airplane and brought it to Iran,” he continued. “$1.7 billion. Do you know what that is? Did you ever see a million dollars in cash? This is $1.7 billion. It took up an entire Boeing 757, and they flew it to Tehran and they gave it to people that were waiting at a plane. Can you imagine these people? They never saw money, and now all of a sudden they’ve got $1.7 billion in cash. And he gave them hundreds of billions of dollars in cash and everything else, and he went to their side.”
Trump alleged that the Iranians “became much more powerful because of Obama.”
The president also blamed former President Joe Biden, who was Obama’s vice president during the Iran deal, adding that “he probably had nothing to say because he was such a stupid person.”
Trump has repeatedly, publicly insisted that his interim memorandum of understanding with Iran is superior to Obama’s agreement.
Iran received $1.7 billion in cash from the Obama administration, partly as leverage for the release of American prisoners, according to CNN, and also as reimbursement for military equipment Iran purchased from the U.S. in the late 1970s and apparently never received.
The Trump administration’s preliminary agreement with Tehran reportedly includes a $300 billion reconstruction fund, which vastly outweighs the $1.7 billion cash payment of 2015.
Watch Trump’s appearance on “Fox & Friends” below. Skip to the 8:57 mark to hear his comments.
