Susan Rice blasts Trump’s Iran deal as a strategic blunder

Susan Rice used a Sunday appearance on ABC News’ This Week with Jonathan Karl to sharpen the Democratic national-security case against Donald Trump’s Iran deal, calling it a “strategic blunder” and warning that the United States had given away too much too soon. She said “so many concessions” had been granted that the outcome was “very bad,” arguing that the arrangement handed Tehran leverage before a final settlement was in place.

At issue is a preliminary U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding signed on June 17, 2026, designed to open a 60-day negotiation period. Reporting on the text says the agreement includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, halting military operations on all fronts, and tying sanctions relief to Iran’s oil sales during that 60-day window. That mix of concessions is exactly what critics say could weaken U.S. leverage and unsettle the region before the core disputes are resolved.

Rice described the agreement as a “flimsy, two-page memorandum of understanding,” and said concessions should have been withheld until after a comprehensive deal was reached and the nuclear provisions were finalized. Her criticism lands on the central risk in the White House’s approach: by easing pressure early, Washington may have given Iran economic breathing room and strategic mobility without locking in the restraints the United States says it needs.

The administration has portrayed the agreement as a step toward ending the war and moving toward a final settlement, but major questions remain over Iran’s nuclear program, missile capabilities, the Strait of Hormuz, and the broader conflict involving Israel and Iranian proxies. Those are the unresolved fault lines that make the memorandum less a breakthrough than a high-stakes pause, with both sides now racing to define the terms of the next 60 days.

Rice’s attack also carried historical weight. In March 2015, when she was Barack Obama’s national security adviser, she told AIPAC that any Iran deal had to include frequent and intrusive inspections at Iranian nuclear sites, including uranium mills. Then, as now, she framed the test of diplomacy not as whether a deal existed, but whether it imposed enforceable limits before the United States surrendered its leverage.