IRAN/MILITARY/NUCLEAR/SPENDING/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump repeated a misleading claim about Iran’s military budget Saturday [5-12-18], saying it had increased by more than 40 percent since the negotiation of the Iran nuclear deal. ‘Iran’s Military Budget is up more than 40% since the Obama negotiated Nuclear Deal was reached…just another indicator that it was all a big lie. But not anymore!,’ Trump tweeted. The President made the same claim in announcing his decision to pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear agreement earlier this week — an assertion that fact checkers have called ‘exaggerated’ and lacking crucial context…Citing data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, [The New York Tiems] explained that Iranian military spending has increased by only about 30 percent from 2015, the year the Iran deal was reached, to last year. The Washington Post also relied on data from the institute in looking into the President’s claim and likewise reported an increase in Iranian military expenditures of ‘nearly 30 percent’ from 2015 to last year.” The Post’s analysis notes that ‘just looking at the raw increase or decrease in any country’s military budget misses important context.’ Iranian military spending ‘increased alongside overall government spending — not in a silo on its own…'”
-Clare Foran and Nicole Gaouette, “Trump repeats misleading claim on Iran’s military budget,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 13, 2018 2:20 pm