Trump: The U.S. Turned Iran Into a Power

Hillary Clinton often touts her role in laying the groundwork for the U.S. to reach a nuclear deal with Iran by rallying the world’s major economies to build a crippling sanctions regime that ushered Iran to the negotiating table as one of the hallmarks of her tenure as Secretary of State.

“I spent 18 months putting together the sanctions against Iran so that we could force them to the negotiating table,” Clinton boasted during a Democratic primary forum on MSNBC last year. During her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last week, Clinton said, “I’m proud that we put a lid on Iran’s nuclear program without firing a single shot.”

Clinton’s work, according to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, only emboldened the ayatollahs and saved the regime in Tehran from collapsing.

“They were struggling for their life and we made a power out of Iran,” Trump said during a town hall in Columbus, Ohio on Monday, explaining why he decided to run for president in 2016. “If fact, they were in serious trouble — when they were all marching in the streets, it was over and Obama came to their rescue, if you remember that – [in the] first term. That was a bad day. That was going to be over for them, and we came to their rescue. Now, we have made them into a power, okay. A big power.”

Meanwhile, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei renewed his criticism of the nuclear deal in a speech in Tehran on Monday, accusing the United States of failing to keep its side of the bargain. “The nuclear deal, as an experience, once again proved the pointlessness of negotiating with the Americans, their bad promises and the need not to trust America’s promises,” Khamenei was quoted as saying by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).