Why has Trump's potential Iran deal upset so many Republicans?

Simon, there's a few things to get into.Thank you for joining us.Let's start first with this breaking news that we've seen from President Trump, if that's all right, on Truth Social.Just to tell listeners, the blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified and signed.Both sides must take their time and get it right.Simon, your interpretation of that.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon to you, Henry.Look, he's been on the receiving end of incoming from furious Republicans.for the last 12 hours.Since his previous Truth Social posting in which he revealed that he'd had this big conversation on Saturday afternoon with leaders across the Middle East, that there was a possible ceasefire extension in the offing, that the Strait of Hormuz was going to be reopened as part of this, then details started tumbling out from Middle Eastern governments, Iranian sources, and those details deeply worried and indeed infuriated some very senior Republican lawmakers, including Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a very influential foreign policy voice in the president's ear, who took to social media to say, in the case of Lindsey Graham, based on what he was hearing about what the president may be on the verge of agreeing to, he couldn't really understand why the war had been started in the first place because both Senator Cruz and Senator Graham and many others argued that this was tantamount to basically an American surrender to the Iranian regime that will be left in place, that in and of itself is anathema, particularly to Senator Lindsey Graham, but also without securing any guarantees that at the end of the day,the Iranians were not going to be able to rebuild their nuclear program.All of that was going to be kicked down the road for 60 days while you kind of sort of resolved the Strait of Hormuz issue, although there were huge questions about the nature of that, while also giving the Iranians a promise that if they negotiated and signed and sealed a full -scale peace deal within the next 60 days, they would enjoy a waiver on American sanctions against the sale of oil and would secure billions of dollars in unfrozen assets.

assets that are currently frozen here, that those would be unfrozen.And let me tell you why that strikes a real nerve for Republicans.President Trump for months has publicly humiliated Barack Obama.for unfreezing $400 million, not billion, $400 million and literally flying the cash to Iran back in January of 2016.Now suddenly Republicans are being asked to swallow the idea that Donald Trump might unfreeze Billions with a B of frozen Iranian assets.Exactly the kind of war chest that they worry the regime could then use to rebuild its ability to be a military threat not only to the United States but particularly to to its allies, America's allies and partners in the region, including, of course, the possibility that some of that money would flow to Hezbollah in Lebanon to rebuild that Iranian proxy.

So Republicans are incandescent about this deal that President Trump appears to be considering.They think that this is the Iran nuclear deal all over again and potentially even weaker.than that.And so now you see Donald Trump taking to Truth Social to say, basically, I've heard what you're saying.Of course, we're going to give this all the time that it needs.I think it raises huge questions about whether that 60 day extended ceasefire is going to be able to go ahead.

It's also, by the way, not just Republican lawmakers, you know, prominent figures here, Bob Kagan, neoconservative who founded the project for the new American century.He's immediately authored a piece for The Atlantic here saying that Donald Trump's end game is in Iran is surrender.So he's got a real problem on the conservative side of the aisle here with what yesterday he was touting as a brilliant outcome that was going to allow the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened.

He had Marco Rubio sent out just hours ago talking about extolling the virtues of this as well.So you're right, it's very confusing.The Truth Social post is so long, Simon, that I'll be taking some of James Hansen's show, if I read it all out, but he does talk about the Obama administration, as you say, the rank amateurs, he calls them.He says that this transaction with Iran is the exact opposite of that.

Well, it's only the opposite in the sense that Barack Obama only sent millions of dollars to Iran.Donald Trump appears to be considering unfreezing billions of dollars for Iran.Also, just worth bearing in mind, Henry, that this is not context -free, this pushback by the Republicans.Remember that last week, Republicans in the Senate finally found a teeny bit of spine to revolt against Donald Trump's proposed weaponisation compensation fund that they learnt with furyis poised potentially to hand cash payments over to some of Donald Trump's insurrectionists who claim that they were being pursued by a weaponized Department of Justice under the Biden administration.So Republicans, you know, the blood of Republicans is up.

with this White House.And the biggest problem, of course, now for Trump's defenders is that this critique of what he's doing on Iran, this allegation that he's engaged in an act of humiliating surrender by the United States, is not coming from the Democrats.It's coming from loyal, traditional supporters of Donald Trump up on Capitol Hill.

Simon, while I've got you, can we talk as well about what happened overnight at the White House?

Yeah, so we now know a lot more about this shooting that took place right outside the White House at a checkpoint where a gunman confronted members of the Secret Service, opened fire and was then shot at by the Secret Service who killed him.This gunman was known to the security teams at the White House.His name was Nasiri Best, according to media reports here.He was 21 years of age.He had made multiple efforts in the past.try and at least glean information from the Secret Service about how someone might be able to gain entry to the White House.

He was arrested last July for walking into a restricted area on White House grounds after reportedly ignoring signs and commands to stop.The authorities say here that he was obsessed with trying to gain access to the White House.At one point in one of his encounters with the Secret Service, he said that he believed that he Jesus Christ and that he had been commanded essentially to try togain entry to the building.He was involuntarily held back in June of last year for blocking a vehicle entry on the east side of the White House.That was when he said he was Jesus Christ and wanted to get arrested.

A judge had issued a stay away order following that arrest that was that had barred him from going anywhere near, basically, the White House.And lo and behold, he showed up at the White House last night with a gun.So this appears to be an incident of someone who was suffering from tremendous mental challenges, determined to try and gain entrance to the building and discovering that one man with a gun is no match for the very heavily armed Secret Service that already surround the building, a ring of steel.Of course, President Trump is arguing this is one reason why he needs to build what we've all got to stop calling his ballroom and all need to start talking about as his fortress.You know, this heavily fortified, impenetrable, six -story deep bunker that is being constructed at the White House.So he immediately on social media last night said, well, this proves why we need to do that.

You could also argue it actually proved that the existing security arrangements are sufficient, that this gunman was neutralised, killed by the Secret Service, though unfortunately a bystander was wounded after getting caught in the crossfire.