Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a shocking slip, reportedly admitted during a private briefing with lawmakers that former President Barack Obama’s peace deal with Iran is better than President Donald Trump’s agreement.
In fact, Rubio admitted that the Memorandum of Understanding with Tehran to end Trump’s unapproved war isn’t really an agreement at all.
The secretary, who is also serving as Trump’s Acting National Security Advisor, met with lawmakers June 29 and explained that the Obama administration’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was more than a step above the MOU.
That’s what Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove told a reporter after the meeting, which she called “enlightening.”
“I have to say the highlight, or the lowlight for me, was when Secretary Rubio was asked about the difference between this MOU and JCPOA and Marco Rubio essentially said the JCPOA, the nuclear deal, Obama’s nuclear deal was a real agreement with criteria and benchmarks and thresholds and this MOU is just a signed piece of paper saying we’re going to continue to talk about talking,” the California Democrat explained.
“So, you should ask yourself a hundred and something billion dollars later, what are these people doing with our money and our national security,” she added.
Trump launched a multi-billion-dollar-war on the Islamic Republic on February 28 without Congressional approval or a stated objective or an endgame strategy.
First, Trump said the military campaign was about regime change and Iran’s ballistic missile systems. Then he changed directions and claimed the attack was over the country’s nuclear program. A side note here. Trump launched a 12-day war against Tehran in the summer of 2025 to destroy its nuclear facilities.
The president spent months crowing about how he had completely destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Then in March, he did a 180, claiming the current military campaign was over Iran’s nuclear aspirations.
Thousands of people have died, including 13 American service members. The Iranians quickly shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passageway for a third of the world’s oil supply, causing gas prices and the costs of other consumer goods in the U.S. to skyrocket.
Plus, Trump’s MOU, which only calls for continuing peace talks, is barely holding, with both countries resuming attacks on each other last week, before returning to the negotiating table.
Social media quickly reacted to reports of Rubio’s admission on Trump’s inferior MOU.
“I’d love to see how Rubio would answer the same question in public. Guarantee he would not tell the truth,” a Threads user stated.
An X user noted, “Someone finally woke up and admitted this disaster. Now let’s hear it from Trump’s mouth. What money you have spent so much of taxpayers’ money, Trump was jealous because it had Obama’s name on it.”
Another chimed in, “Rubio knows the truth.”
“Sometimes Rubio has to tell just enough of the truth, but I’m sure he will get yelled at for it,” another X user said.
During his first term, Trump quickly scrapped the Obama administration’s JCPOA, an agreement the U.S. and other nations brokered to limit Tehran’s ability to enrich uranium and potentially develop a nuclear weapon.
Trump had spent months bashing the agreement and accusing Obama of giving away millions of dollars to Iran to make the deal. Part of Trump’s MOU calls for handing over billions of dollars to Tehran for a peace deal and doesn’t even address the stockpile of uranium the nation still controls.
