IRAN/MILITARY/NUCLEAR/OBAMA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “While tweeting details about his decision to abort a planned strike against Iran, Trump ridiculed the Iran nuclear deal and President Barack Obama while praising his own decision to leave the agreement. Here’s a closer look at some of the claims he made during his tweet thread. Trump wrote that through the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, Obama ‘gave (Iran) 150 Billion Dollars.’ Facts First: The Iran Deal unlocked Iranian assets that were previously frozen due to sanctions, but it’s unclear how much those assets were worth — $150 billion is the highest estimate provided by US officials and it’s thought that Iran could not have accessed all of that money because much of it was tied up in projects overseas. Trump’s assertion that Obama ‘gave’ Iran this money is not quite accurate. As part of the deal (which multiple countries were involved in), Iranian assets that existed in banks and financial institutions across the world were unfrozen. Estimates for the value of these assets vary.”
–Holmes Lybrand, “Fact-checking Trump’s tweets on Obama’s payments to Iran,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, June 21, 2019 5:04 pm