Tom Cotton built his brand torching a Democratic president's deal with Iran. Now, Politico reports, a Republican president's Iran agreement has left him with a dilemma. The Arkansas senator and Intelligence Committee chair, once the GOP's most strident foe of Barack Obama's nuclear agreement, is offering only measured criticism as President Trump and Vice President JD Vance promote a new 14-point framework trading Iranian nuclear limits for sanctions relief. Cotton warned on Fox News that "certain aspects of this deal are a step in the wrong direction" and cautioned that the administration could "squander the leverage that we've built" over Tehran. But that's a long way from his actions in 2015, when he organized sending a letter to Iran's supreme leader from GOP senators declaring an Obama-era deal easily reversible.
He has other conflicts with Trump. A three-year extension of a key surveillance authority that Cotton negotiated blew up after Trump installed a loyalist in a top intelligence post. The president publicly postponed a confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton, his choice for director of national intelligence, that Cotton had insisted would proceed. Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon blasted Cotton as "out of control," prompting the senator to delay the hearing. While Republicans like Senate Majority Leader John Thune praise Cotton's handling of the spying law and intelligence fights, his unease over Iran's expected oil revenue and $300 billion "reconstruction fund" underscores a larger Republican tension, per Politico: Trump's deal-making versus the party's remaining national security hawks.
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