Ex-Obama aide: Trump ‘totally alienating the US from our allies’

Ben Rhodes, a former foreign policy adviser to President Obama, ripped President Trump on Tuesday over his comments to the United Nations on the Iran nuclear deal, accusing the president of “alienating” the U.S. from its allies.

“Trump at UN totally alienating the US from our allies and taking a position that will have no global support,” Rhodes wrote on Twitter, posting along with it a quote from Trump’s United Nations speech on Tuesday, in which he called the nuclear agreement “an embarrassment.”

Trump at UN totally alienating the US from our allies and taking a position that will have no global support https://t.co/8TOmttmwxC

— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) September 19, 2017

It’s year 1 of Trump presidency. Hard to overstate the damage he could do to the world and US leadership if he acts on his belligerent words

— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) September 19, 2017

Trump railed against Iran and the U.N.-backed nuclear agreement in his first address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, saying the deal was “the worst and most one-sided transaction the U.S. has ever entered into.”

{mosads} 

The Trump administration must say by Oct. 15 whether it considers Iran in compliance with the agreement, which is aimed at curbing Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Trump has long derided the deal and threatened to abandon it. While he’s recertified Iran’s compliance twice since taking office, it is unclear if he will do so again.

If Trump does not certify Iran’s compliance, it would pave the way for new sanctions against the country and likely lead to the breakdown of the nuclear agreement altogether. 

Also in his speech Tuesday, Trump complained that the U.S. is bearing too much of the financial burden for the U.N. and emphasized that he would seek to act in the United States’ best interest.