Neocons, Iran Hawks Highly Skeptical And Critical As Trump Pushes To End War

As President Donald Trump pushes to end the war, a flurry of neocons and Iran hawks have sharply criticized the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the U.S. and Iran, calling on the White House to release the full text to the public while comparing the president to Barack Obama.

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The MOU — which the White House claims was already signed electronically — is slated for a formal signing ceremony Friday in Geneva, Switzerland. A major diplomatic breakthrough, the MOU would reportedly end hostilities and begin a 60-day period in which both parties can negotiate thornier issues, such as Iran’s uranium enrichment capabilities, the long-term arrangement for the Strait of Hormuz and sanctions relief. (RELATED: ‘I’m Not Happy’: Trump Rebukes Israel, Directly Calls Out IDF)

However, neocons and hawks are ramping up their criticism of the MOU as the Friday ceremony approaches.

Erick Erickson said Tuesday that Trump is ending the war “on terms worse than the status quo he inherited.”

“What started as a strong campaign to end a regime is ending with subsidy and surrender by the Americans,” he wrote in a Substack titled, “A Peace Worse Than War.” “We are choosing to give up.”

Fox News contributor and Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen referred to a leaked 14-point proposal, which one Iranian state media outlet claims is the MOU, as a “complete disaster” if true. He also tried to frame the MOU as the “Vance peace deal,” even though Trump signed off on it.

Ben Domenech, also a Fox News contributor, praised Trump’s decision to launch the war before calling the MOU “Hillbilly Obama foreign policy.”

“This deal and everything we know about it to the degree it is being spun by this administration: everything about this deal seems bad to me,” he said. “It all seems like a setback. It doesn’t meet any of the measures the president put out there of his goals for this conflict.”

Hugh Hewitt, yet another Fox News contributor, commented on the fact that Israel was cut out of the MOU while citing a poll showing that 7 out of 10 Republicans supported Trump’s handling of the war. The poll was from March.

“President Trump’s base of supporters also strongly support Israel as America’s greatest, most powerful and most reliable strategic ally,” Hewitt said. “If the end of the war is perceived as damaging to that ally, President Trump will crack his base, perhaps badly. He’s got to know that so I’m skeptical he will agree to a bad deal.”

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Commentary Magazine editor John Podhoretz bashed the MOU, saying Trump “choked” and “chickened out” of the war.

Ben Shapiro called on the MOU text to be released, arguing it is likely a “mediocre” deal. He saved his harshest criticism for optics surrounding the possible formal signing ceremony Friday in Geneva.

“What we are learning right now is that that would in fact include the Iranian parliamentary leader, [Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf] — IRGC stand-in — and the vice president, JD Vance. I think that’s a horrible idea,” he said. “The idea of deploying the vice president of the United States to do a handshake with an actual terror leader is a horrible idea.”

Fox News host Mark Levin also called for the text’s release and got into an online dust-up with a Trump adviser.

Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that although he is “pleased” by the latest development, he still has concerns.

“I am pleased to hear the memorandum of understanding with Iran to allow the Strait of Hormuz to open has been agreed to. I will be watching closely the ensuing negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program and other matters closely,” he said, adding, “I am somewhat concerned that Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming.”

Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the neocon think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, called for Trump to hunker down and restart the war and said the administration is recycling Obama-era talking points.

National Review’s Andrew McCarthy berated the Trump White House for not releasing the MOU text to the public and compared the president to Neville Chamberlain.

“To the extent the MOU is something, it is something very bad because if it were something good, we’d be reading it, not being spun about it,” he wrote. “The president is an impetuous man who would not be able to contain himself if the written MOU were of even marginal benefit to the United States; he would be far more comfortable exposing it and exaggerating the marginal benefit as if it were a coup. “

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