There is a vulgar phrase that Americans like to use when someone is trying to fool them: “Don’t piss on my boots and tell me it’s raining.”
Now, Donald Trump is putting that vivid aphorism to its most strenuous test. Amid tumbling approval ratings, he needs to persuade Americans that his war on Iran has been worth it, despite copious evidence to prove that it has not.
When he promotes the ceasefire extension that he claims will imminently be signed with Iran, he invariably compares it to the internationally brokered Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of 2015, more colloquially known as the Iran nuclear deal.
Trump controversially withdrew the US from that agreement during his first term in office. Now, less than five months before crucial midterm elections that will determine the balance of power on Capitol Hill, it is vital for Trump that American voters believe his new deal with Iran is better than the old one.
“[Former US president] Barack Hussein Obama’s Deal with Iran, the JCPOA, was an easy, beautiful road to a Nuclear Weapon. My Agreement with Iran is the exact opposite,” Trump posted on his social media account on Saturday. The fact that in its very first paragraph, the text of the JCPOA (still accessible on the State Department’s website) states that “Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons” is always overlooked in Trump’s telling of the situation.
