'Arsonist seeking credit for escaping burning building': Cory Booker blasts Trump's Iran deal
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) didn't mince words on Sunday, dismissing President Donald Trump's Iran agreement as a capitulation to an adversary that is now openly mocking the United States. When asked if Trump deserved any credit for ending the war, Booker said, "That's like giving an arsonist credit for running out of the burning building after starting a fire. The president has led this nation into a disaster. We have surrendered our power."
Booker, who voted eight times in the Senate to end the war, argued that Iran has emerged from the conflict as the clear winner. "Trump is the biggest loser on the world stage," he said, calling on Congress to assert itself against what he described as a "chaotic, corrupt, and cruel" presidency. Booker namechecked Republican lawmakers who, in his view, gave Trump unchecked authority from the outset. "Now they're crying foul because they don't like the results. Shame on Congress," Booker told NBC's 'Meet the Press' anchor Garrett Haake.
The 57-year-old was clear that he supported the end of the war but did not approve of the way it came to an end, characterizing the interim agreement signed between the two sides last week as "abject" surrender. "When you have Democrats and Republicans coming out talking about capitulation, surrender, catastrophe, you know how bad this deal is. Iran gets all of the benefits, literally billions and billions of dollars. This has been a cataclysmic failure of his making," he averred.
Under President @realDonaldTrump and @VP, we continue to make the world safer and more prosperous.
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) June 22, 2026
In line with the ongoing productive talks in Switzerland, Iran has committed to free and open transit in the Strait of Hormuz and to permit International Atomic Energy Agency…
Booker's broadside appeared to be carefully calibrated for the 2026 midterms, framing congressional complicity as the central Democratic argument, though it remains to be seen whether antiwar sentiment translates into a veritable shift. But Booker's pitch may end up being more than just rhetoric—a recent poll shows roughly 65 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of the conflict that began in February.
When people wonder why Trump lost his war against Iran so quickly and completely, you only need to remember that he is the same person who called Putin a “strategic genius” and tried to bully Ukraine by saying it had “no cards”.
— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) June 22, 2026
Simple really.
Meanwhile, Iranian and American negotiators met in Switzerland on Sunday for high-level talks aimed at fleshing out the interim agreement. Vice President J.D. Vance said the lengthy talks created a "good foundation for a successful final deal," Associated Press reported. "The final deal is the house," Vance added, following his interaction with Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
The talks are set to continue through the week, though the negotiations got off to a rocky start after Trump took to Truth Social to threaten Iran over its support for proxies in Lebanon, prompting the Iranians to walk out of the site in protest. Vance defended the President's approach, making clear the administration will respond to Iran's "trash talk" at the table. "There was a little bit of threatening, there was a little bit of whining," Vance told reporters. "But at the end of the day, the talks continued, and we made great progress."
