Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested on Tuesday that the “Deep State is alive and well” within the Treasury and State Department and that their “number one objective” is to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. 

In a conversation with Mike Doran at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C., Cruz charged that federal employees who oppose President Donald Trump’s policies intend to keep the deal “on life support” in the hope that a possible Democratic administration re-enters the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which the Trump administration withdrew from in May 2018. “Their objective is just wait out Donald Trump,” he said. “They’re convinced he’s leaving in January 2021, and so it’s a waiting game.” 

According to the Republican senator, “Every single day, the Deep State at [the] Treasury and State is working to frustrate President Trump’s decision” to withdraw from the deal and increase economic pressure on Iran. 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met Tuesday morning with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire to discuss a proposal that would grant Iran a $15 billion credit line if Tehran adheres to the terms of the international accord. 

Cruz said, “I hope and pray that Mnuchin is not deceived and that he does not go down a path that would lead him to be the Neville Chamberlain of the modern day,” referring to the British prime minister whose foreign policy of “appeasement” contributed to Nazi Germany’s territorial gains across Europe in the late 1930s. 

“These are, by the way, the same people that told you we couldn’t move the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem,” Cruz continued. “They are urging weakness and appeasement, and if the Trump administration takes their advice, they will have undone the single biggest national security victory President Trump has had in his entire tenure in office. I hope and pray that doesn’t happen… I believe the president will know enough not to listen to these voices that keep being proven wrong over and over, and over again, and yet they have an ideological commitment they are trying to convince President Trump to adopt the Obama foreign policy. It was a disaster when Obama implemented this policy, and if the deep state prevails, they will have deceived President Trump into making the same mistakes.”