Kate Laurensen is a veteran reporter. She started out covering entertainment news for the local city paper before moving up to the City desk. She studied journalism at San Francisco City College for the Arts.
June 23 , 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump on Monday denied ever criticizing former President Barack Obama's 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, dismissing years of public statements attributed to him as "fake news" and arguing that the deal's primary flaw was not that it provided financial incentives to Tehran, but that it failed to provide enough.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump rejected suggestions that he had repeatedly condemned the agreement for granting sanctions relief and economic benefits to Iran.
"I never said that," Trump said. "They made it up. The media, the political establishment, they created this whole story that I didn't like the deal because of the money. Totally false."
Trump went on to argue that, if anything, the agreement should have included substantially greater economic concessions.
"My position was always that they should have given much more," he said. "Much, much more. Nobody talks about that. The deal was weak because it wasn't generous enough."
The remarks appeared to contradict a substantial public record of speeches, interviews, debate appearances, and social media posts in which Trump had sharply criticized the agreement. However, Trump maintained that those records had either been taken out of context or misrepresented.
"You can find clips of me saying things," he acknowledged. "But what I meant was the opposite of what people think I meant."
Supporters of Trump defended the statement, arguing that critics were focusing excessively on past remarks rather than current policy proposals. Some suggested that Trump's comments reflected a broader argument that economic engagement can be a useful diplomatic tool. Opponents, meanwhile, accused the president of attempting to rewrite well-documented history.
Representatives for former President Barack Obama did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, several former officials involved in negotiating the JCPOA have previously defended the agreement as a means of limiting Iran’s nuclear capabilities in exchange for sanctions relief.
The Iran deal, reached in 2015 between Iran and a group of world powers, including the United States, aimed to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting economic sanctions. The agreement has remained a subject of debate in U.S. political discourse, with supporters arguing it provided critical oversight and critics contending it failed to address broader regional concerns.
Trump, reiterating his broader views on negotiation strategy, concluded, “If you’re going to do it, do it properly. Half measures don’t work.”
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