Let's talk about Trump, Iran, and 20 billion dollars.... - Belle of the Ranch

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about Trump considering paying Iran $20 billion.

Reporting has come out that says the Trump administration is considering unfreezing $20 billion in Iranian assets as part of Trump's ongoing attempts to unwind the military campaign that started with him saying the only option was unconditional surrender.

This news comes shortly after Trump obeyed Iran over the Lebanon ceasefire. The administration obviously knows how damaging this is to Trump. He spent a literal decade trashing Obama over much smaller concessions to Iran to get the deal Trump said was a disaster. Now Trump is considering paying billions to get a worse deal after he destroyed the last one.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said, "Productive conversations with Iran continue, but we will not negotiate via the press." Since when? That must be a new policy because Trump negotiates via social media constantly. And given that much of Iran is without Internet, it's the press that carries his negotiating positions forward.

Meanwhile, Trump went to the press to try to squash the idea that this was being considered, saying, "No money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form." The problem with this is the Trumpian spin machine.

My guess is that he'll unfreeze Iranian assets and then say that no money changed hands. It was already theirs and that's true. And this type of thing is a typical part of normal negotiations. However, Trump has criticized other presidents in the past for the same activity.

Trump's latest fixation is trying to get Iran to hand over the uranium they already enriched. It seems strange that a sticking point in negotiations is a stockpile of uranium that Trump told the country he obliterated in strikes months ago.

Now Trump is claiming Iran has agreed to hand over its uranium stockpiles. He said it was “so very important that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. And they've agreed to that. Iran's agreed to that. and they've agreed to it very powerfully. We have a lot of agreement with Iran and I think something's going to happen very positively. It's a very complicated subject, but I think we're moving very fast. It could happen pretty quickly.”

He also said Iran agreed to "Give us back the nuclear dust that's way underground because of the attack we made.”

Reporting based on Iranian sources directly contradicts Trump's massive claim. They say, "No form of nuclear material transfer to America has been negotiated." With another saying, "No major progress has been made.”

There may be additional negotiations soon with Pakistan serving as a mediator. There is no certainty at time of recording as to when those will happen. But as Trump continues to rush to meet all of Iran's conditions, it's possible that we see movement soon, especially if Trump put up $20 billion to grease the wheels of diplomacy.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.