Trump leaves himself little room for Iran deal recertification

After using the most high-profile foreign policy speech of his presidency to call the Iran nuclear deal "an embarrassment to the United States," President Trump could find recertifying the agreement next month even more politically difficult than the deal's opponents had already promised to make it.

Supporters of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the Iran deal is formally known, rallied in defense of it this week ahead of Trump's appearance at the United Nations General Assembly, where he was expected to argue against the deal both publicly and privately. Trump's searing indictment of the JCPOA on Tuesday — and his extensive conversation about the deal during a bilateral meeting on Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron, who supports it — has heightened speculation that he may decide to decertify the agreement by Oct. 15, when his State Department must inform Congress whether Iran has complied with the terms of the deal.

"I don't think we know what the president's decision on the deal is going to be yet," John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the UN, told the Washington Examiner. "But these were very strong comments. And when you say, among other things, that the deal is an embarrassment to the U.S., it's hard to see how you certify or stay in."

Bolton suggested recertifying the JCPOA after criticizing it so harshly could send mixed signals to the international community about where Trump truly stands on Iranian policy.

"To me, that's the kind of one shoe on, one shoe off foreign policy — that's not the way the U.S. leads, because to lead, you need moral and political clarity," Bolton said.