Iran-US historian: Trump would like Iran deal

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00:00And when President Trump actually first took office, he abandoned the Iran nuclear deal

00:05agreed by the Obama administration. What were his reasons for this? And what have the

00:13ramifications been? Is this why we've seen this escalation happen so many years down the road?

00:20In large part, yes. I mean, his reasoning, I think, was that he could do a better deal than Obama.

00:25That the idea of the JCPOA was not popular with his support base, but more importantly,

00:32with the Republican Party establishment in Washington. Donald Trump is in a much stronger

00:39position vis-a-vis the Republican Party today than he was in his first term. And it's obvious that

00:44his own instincts are rising to the surface. And it's obvious that his own instincts are actually

00:49not warmongering or getting involved in another forever war in the Middle East,

00:54but actually a transactional deal-making kind of approach to Iran. But I think he still feels

00:59that he can do better than the deal that was done by Obama. And in fact, you know, it's entirely

01:04possible that there will be, I mean, things have changed so much that it's entirely possible that

01:07there could be a strong, durable deal of some kind between the two countries, but not anytime soon.

01:15You know, what Donald Trump's reasoning was in his first term was pull out of the deal,

01:19maximum pressure, try to implode the regime from within, or just weaken it enough that it would

01:23somehow capitulate to American terms. That didn't really work. There's a part of him that's still

01:30taking that approach, but there's another part of him that clearly would like a fresh start with Iran.