Inside the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from

President Donald Trump on Friday defended the continued lack of a war-ending deal with Iran by once again trashing the prior nuclear agreement brokered by Barack Obama , his predecessor and longtime political foe. "They've dealt with very weak and ineffective leadership on behalf of the United States" and others "that allowed them to get away with murder," Trump said of Iran in an NBC News interview. He was asked why Iran is still holding out in negotiations if they are desperate to reach an agreement, as Trump insists that they are. "It takes a little while … This should have been done long ago," Trump said when pressed. He then brought up the Obama-era nuclear deal — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA — which Trump withdrew the U.S. from in 2018 and did not renegotiate . "That deal was tantamount to giving them a nuclear weapon. It was a horrible deal given by Barack Obama, and really penned by him," Trump told NBC. "It was a horrible deal." It was hardly the first time Trump has excoriated the JCPOA, which was reached in 2015 by an international coalition including the U.S. "The DEAL that we are making with Iran will be FAR BETTER," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on April 20, adding a few minutes later that such a deal will come "relatively quickly!" US President Donald Trump speaks with the press aboard Air Force One as he flies from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, June 5, 2026. …