President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. and Iran have a framework of a peace deal was met Sunday with skepticism from key Republicans — and confusing claims from the president himself.
It remained unclear whether Iran would give up its cache of enriched uranium or reduce its vast missile stockpile — the two top goals that the U.S. and Israel announced when they attacked Iran nearly three months ago. The timing of a full agreement was also uncertain but it would not be signed on Sunday, a senior Trump administration official granted anonymity to discuss details told MS NOW.
Hours after he said on Saturday that the two countries had agreed to a memorandum of understanding “pertaining to PEACE,” the president on Sunday posted an ominous image on Truth Social that was anything but peaceful: An AI-generated photo of an American warplane bombing Iranian-flagged ships, with their soldiers flying through the air into the water.
“Adios,” the accompanying message over the image posted by Trump said.
In another post Sunday morning, Trump said the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports “will remain in full force and effect” until a final agreement is reached. He reiterated his demand that Iran “cannot develop or procure” a nuclear weapon and said he has instructed his negotiators “not to rush into a deal.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Trump ally and foreign policy hawk, warned Sunday: “President Trump: Stick to your guns in getting a good deal with Iran. Equally important, stick to your guns in insisting Saudi Arabia and others join the Abraham Accords as part of these negotiations.”
The GOP senator hailed what he called a “brilliant proposal by President Trump” after cautioning on Saturday that if the Strait of Hormuz remains unprotected and Iran retains destructive capabilities, “It makes one wonder why the war started to begin with.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said bluntly, “It doesn’t make sense to me.”
Noting that the Pentagon claimed months ago that U.S. military forces had “obliterated” Iran’s defenses, Tillis told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, “Now we’re talking about a posture where we may accept the nuclear material remaining in Iran? How does that make sense at all?”
The GOP senator said any deal that isn’t ratified by Congress is “going to be doomed to fail.”
Under the tentative deal, according to the White House official granted anonymity to discuss sensitive details, the U.S. and Iran have agreed to the unfreezing of certain Iranian assets, to negotiate curbing Iran’s nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply normally transits.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the president against such criticism that the emerging framework could amount to a strategic victory for Iran. Rubio said Trump remains steadfast to his repeatedly stated goal that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
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“His commitment to that principle, that they’ll never have a nuclear weapon shouldn’t be questioned by anybody, and the idea that somehow this president, given everything he’s already proven he’s willing to do, is going to somehow agree to a deal that ultimately winds up putting Iran in a stronger position when it comes to nuclear ambitions is absurd,” Rubio said Sunday during a state visit to India. “That’s just not going to happen.”
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was blunt in his warning that the “rumored 60-day ceasefire” would be “a disaster.”
The proposal would give Iran 30 to 60 days to negotiate how to resolve its highly enriched uranium, according to The New York Times, which cited three senior Iranian officials.
Other GOP critics of the plan included Mike Pompeo, former CIA director and secretary of state in the first Trump administration, who denounced the framework as “not remotely America First.”
“It’s straightforward: Open the damned strait. Deny Iran access to money. Take out enough Iranian capability so it cannot threaten our allies in the region,” Pompeo wrote on X Saturday.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said if the proposal allows Iran to continue to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon and effectively retain control over the Strait of Hormuz “then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake.”
Tillis, in his appearance on CNN Sunday, criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership of the Pentagon, saying, “I think, with all these mistakes in total, it’s beginning to make Kristi Noem look like a five-star recruit.”
Emily Hung contributed to this report.
Jake Traylor is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.
David Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News.