Hooshang Amirahmadi, PhD
Professor, Rutgers University

The Trump administration wants to renegotiate the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the 5+1 group of countries (the US, the UK, France, Germany, Russia, China), commonly called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Some say this demand suggests that Iran has had a winning negotiation and Trump does not like it to win. Others argue that Trump is motivated by scrapping any deal that has the signature of former President Barack Obama on it. Trump himself has said the deal is “bad,” but has never explained why.

In this article, I will argue that Trump’s opposition to the nuclear deal is neither because he sees Iran as a winner, nor because he dislikes an Obama legacy. Instead, Trump and his associates believe that, given how desperately and carelessly Iran negotiated the nuclear deal under the duress of sanctions and threats, they can make Iran lose even more in renegotiating the JCPOA and other matters of concern to the US. Iran, which initially celebrated the conclusion of the deal, now finds itself trapped by it without adequately realizing the much-anticipated sanctions relief or foreign investment.