'He lit the fire': Chris Van Hollen blasts Trump over Iran deal claims

After President Donald Trump said that Iran is set to sign a deal on American terms, never to obtain nuclear weapons, and announced the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) took a dig at the President, criticizing him for taking credit for ending a conflict that he started. The Maryland Senator said that the United States had a deal with Iran during the Obama administration, which prevented the latter from having nuclear weapons, which was set aside by President Trump in his first term, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Under the Obama administration, we had an agreement with Iran, which prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon," Van Hollen said in an interview on MS Now. "In the early days of the first Trump administration, they certified that Iran complied with that agreement. But then, again, together with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Trump, in his first term, decided to rip that up," he added.

Van Hollen blamed Trump for creating a crisis and then expecting praise to resolve it. "Donald Trump breaks stuff, lights things on fire. And now he's coming to the American people and saying, 'Pat me on the back for putting out the fire that I started,'" he said. Notably, after announcing the opening of the Hormuz Strait, President Trump ranted about negative press coverage of the Iran War.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump singled out the "failing" New York Times and "fake news" CNN, stating that news outlets like those were "desperately looking for a reason to criticize" him about the Iran war. "Why don’t they just say, at the right time, JOB WELL DONE, MR. PRESIDENT, and start to gain back their credibility?" he wrote on Truth Social.

Van Hollen wasn't the only lawmaker to criticize the President. Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, also took to X and said that the Strait of Hormuz was only closed due to U.S. aggression, and that celebrating its reopening as an achievement was not ideal. "We didn't need to go to war to open the Strait of Hormuz. It was already open. To claim this outcome as a war achievement is paradoxical," he wrote.

In a series of Truth Social posts, President Trump indicated that Iran is close to signing an agreement with the United States. He said that the ongoing naval blockade will continue until "such time as our transaction with Iran is 100% coimplete." The process should "go very quickly," he added, as most points have already been negotiated.