How Trump Should Deal with Iran

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% : During the United Nations General Assembly sessions in 2017 and 2018, Trump sought French president Emanuel Macron's help to secure a meeting with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani.
59% : During a G7 meeting in France, Trump asked the French to set up a meeting with Zarif, who was visiting France at the time.
54% : If he wins in November, Trump may have an opportunity to finally get his calls returned by Tehran.
45% : An understanding with Iran is not a prerequisite for leaving Iraq and Syria -- Trump should bring the troops home regardless -- but reduced tensions with Tehran make an American withdrawal easier and less risky.
44% : How Trump plays his hand with Iran at the outset of his potential second term can determine whether he'll be the dealmaker that brings U.S. troops home from the Middle East or not.
41% : Tehran misread Trump, concluding that his aggressive rhetoric and his deference to Pompeo and Bolton's strategy, as well as his proximity to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman, suggested that his objective was regime change or even war.
32% : The Washington Post reported that Bolton was "devastated" that Trump had changed his mind.
32% : He insisted that Iran needed to renew diplomacy with the U.S., including with Trump, to resolve its economic problems.
29% : On several occasions, Trump sought to talk directly to the Iranians but was rebuffed.
27% : Trump eventually agreed, but then had a change of heart last minute since the plan would cause disproportionate damage.
26% : Iranian officials told me later that rejecting talks with Trump was a mistake.
24% : "Trump wanted a deal that would allow him to build Trump Towers in Tehran, whereas Obama's deal continued to keep business with Iran off limits to American companies.
22% : If Trump once again surrounds himself with neocons, then dealing with Netanyahu's attempts to undermine his plans to withdraw from the Middle East may prove trickier than dealing with Pezeshkian's Iran.
19% : But having surrounded himself with Iran hawks and neoconservatives like Mike Pompeo, Rudy Giuliani, and John Bolton, he was given disingenuously bad advice: They deceived Trump that escalating sanctions would bring Iran to its knees and enable Trump to secure a better deal while they knew all along that the strategy was designed to bring the U.S. into war with Iran.
17% : By that, Netanyahu would trap Trump (or Kamala Harris) in yet another Middle East war even before his inauguration day.
15% : Though they had reasons to be skeptical and wary, the refusal to talk only prompted Trump to double down on Pompeo and Bolton's pressure strategy.
12% : Trump withdrew from Obama's Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and replaced it with "maximum pressure" sanctions, ostensibly to force Iran to agree to a "better" deal.

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