IRAN/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Donald Trump’s exit from the Iran nuclear deal was one of the most significant moments of his presidency — and cemented a sharp turn in decades of US foreign policy orthodoxy. It also opened a new window into Trump’s political soul, showing his willingness to unleash the kind of chaos abroad he has fomented at home. The decision added context to his ‘America First’ foreign policy doctrine and showed he is adamant about following through on campaign promises that horrified America’s allies. And it revealed two other pillars of the Trump presidency — a propensity to turn even the most crucial moments into a global televised drama, and his ravenous desire to eradicate President Barack Obama from the history books…So what Trump did Tuesday [5-8-18] should have come as no surprise. Pulling out of an Iranian nuclear deal without knowing how Tehran or America’s allies will react or if global tensions will spike or if oil prices will surge is consistent with who Trump is. His team could not say what they would do if Iran resumed enriching uranium or if there was a schism in the transatlantic relationship. ‘We did not talk about a Plan B,’ a senior State Department official said.”
-Stephen Collinson, “Everything that scrapping the Iran deal says about Donald Trump,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 9, 2018 3:27 am