Newsmax host on the Trump administration's MOU with Iran: “On paper, it looks pretty bad. Mostly just a list of all the goodies for the Iranian terror regime.”
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From the June 17, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight
ROB SCHMITT (HOST): Trump giving a much needed news conference today in France as his Iran nuclear deal has completely overshadowed the G7 conference. A leaked copy of the memorandum of understanding that begins this negotiation giving tremendous ammunition to his critics because on paper, it looks pretty bad. Mostly just a list of all the goodies for the Iranian terror regime. Fighting ends, including in Lebanon; 60 days to form a nuclear deal; the blockade against Iran is removed; the strait reopens for all free of charge only for 60 days; an eventual $300 billion reconstruction account, Trump says, will be funded by Gulf states; sanctions against Iran are lifted; Iran mandated to never buy or develop a nuclear weapon, that is in there. Its current nuclear assets to be negotiated over the next 60 days; and an executive mechanism will be created to monitor Iran for the potential of breaking any part of this deal. That's a critical part of it, and it seems it is the most important part of this because Trump said firmly today, and this is where the structure of this comes in, that if Iran cheats on this deal, the punishment will be the decimation of the regime continuing.
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SCHMITT: So we know what Iran is. Right? But the whole calculus of negotiating with them does change when the penalty for doing what they always do is now we're going to probably kill everybody we've been negotiating with. Right? As the White House gets lambasted for this deal, and they are, a reminder that the Trump Iran deal is mandated by the threat of a lethal attack. They're essentially telling everybody they're negotiating with you'll die if you cheat on this deal. That is world's more stringent than anything that was in Obama's nuclear deal, of course, which is we might cut your funding. We'll sanction you again. Trump's saying we'll kill you if you don't do this, if you still try to get a nuke.
So before we assume Iran is going to cheat this deal, and we're getting nothing out of this, and the war has been a waste these last few months, maybe just sit back and let this marinate for a few weeks and see where it goes. New York real estate developers typically are not easily duped. This deal intends to permanently denuclearize Iran as long as we continue to have somewhat intelligence — presidents in our future and governments. The Obama deal, as we know, simply delayed Iran's nuclear ambitions for quite a short period of time in all actuality. It literally did put Iran on the path to a nuclear weapon in the near future, just not right now. While at the same time, we were funding that future, which was completely insane. All of that really is true. Trump wasn't just bloviating when he makes those claims.