RUSH: Looks like that’s the Diplomatic Reception Room. That’s a wild guess. Maybe it actually… Yeah, looks like it is. We’re gonna JIP, we’re gonna Join In Progress when the president comes out and makes his announcement. I have gone out on a limb here, and I have predicted and forecast the president’s gonna pull out of the Iran deal, which will fulfill a campaign promise that he’s made. Whenever he’s talked about the Iran deal, either in the campaign or since being inaugurated, he’s referred to it consistently as one of the worst deals in history.

He talks about the amount of money that was paid to Iran by Obama, $150 billion. And then that pallet filled with cash that was flown over to Iran in unmarked planes and delivered on the tarmac. Ostensibly, that ended up being a ransom that was paid for the release of Iranian prisoners, American prisoners that the Iranians were holding. So it would have been really inconsistent if the president had decided to stay in this deal.

He would have had to announce he was staying in it, but only because he wanted to continue to monitor it, make sure it wasn’t taken advantage of. But I think he had to pull out of this. We’ll see. I’m out on a limb here. I haven’t seen… Mr. Snerdley, have you seen any stories where they’re reporting already what Trump’s decision is? Which is weird. You know, hours before the State of the Union they release a transcript. At things like this, there’s always a leak — an intentional leak — that the president is going to announce blah, blah.

They do it maybe a half hour or 15 minutes before the announcement. But I haven’t seen — and I haven’t scoured everything as I would if I had more than three minutes at a time. But I haven’t seen any news report where the president is definitely… (interruption) Wait a minute. Wait a minute. The Drudge Report says, “Trump Pulls Out of Iran Deal.” So that links to something. I haven’t had a chance to click on it. So when the president shows up (it was to start about nine minutes ago), we will join it and get the word from the president himself.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here comes the president. So let us JIP this, and we’ll stay with it as long as it takes to get the thrust of the decision.

THE PRESIDENT: Today I want to update the world on our efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The Iranian regime is the leading state sponsor of terror. It exports dangerous missiles, fuels conflicts across the Middle East and supports terrorist proxies, and militias such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban, and Al-Qaeda. Over the years, Iran and its proxies have bombed American embassies and military installations, murdered hundreds of American service members, and kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured American citizens.

RUSH: Doesn’t sound like we’re staying in here, folks.

THE PRESIDENT: The Iranian regime has funded its long reign of chaos and terror by plundering the wealth of its own people. No action taken by the regime has been more dangerous than its pursuit of nuclear weapons and the means of delivering them. In 2015, the previous administration joined with other nations in a deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program. This agreement was known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA. In theory, the so-called Iran deal, was supposed to protect the United States and our allies from the lunacy of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a weapon that will only endanger the survival of the Iranian regime. In fact, the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and, over time, reach the brink of a nuclear breakout.

RUSH: Right.

THE PRESIDENT: The deal lifted crippling economic sanctions on Iran, in exchange for very weak limits on the regime’s nuclear activity and no limits at all on its own maligned behavior, including its sinister activities in Syria, Yemen, and other places all around the world.

RUSH: We remember this.

THE PRESIDENT: In other words, at the point when the United States had maximum leverage, this disastrous deal gave this regime — and it’s a regime of great terror — many billions of dollars — some of it in actual cash — a great embarrassment to me as a citizen and to all citizens of the United States. A constructive deal could easily have been struck at the time, but it wasn’t. At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction, that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program.

Today we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie. Last week, Israel published intelligence documents long concealed by Iran conclusively showing the Iranians’ regime and its history of pursuing nuclear weapons. The fact is this was a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made. It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace, and it never will.

In the years since the deal was reached, Iran’s military budget has grown by almost 40% while its economy is doing very badly. After the sanctions were lifted, the dictatorship used its new funds to build nuclear-capable missiles, support terrorism and cause havoc throughout the Middle East and beyond. The agreement was so parlor negotiated that even if Iran fully complies, the regime can still be on the verge of a nuclear breakout in just a short period of time.

RUSH: Yeah, like 10 years.

THE PRESIDENT: The deal’s sunset provisions are totally unacceptable. If I allowed this deal to stand, there would soon be a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Everyone would want their weapons ready by the time Iran had theirs. Making matters worse, the deal’s inspection provisions lack adequate mechanisms to prevent, detect, and punish cheating and don’t even have the unqualified right to inspect many important locations, including military facilities. Not only does the deal fail to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but it also fails to address the regime’s development of ballistic missiles that could deliver nuclear warheads.

Finally, the deal does nothing to constrain Iran’s destabilizing activities, including its support for terrorism. Since the agreement, Iran’s bloody ambitions have grown only more brazen. In light of these glaring flaws, I announced last October that the Iran deal must either be renegotiated or terminated. Three months later, on January 12th, I repeated these conditions. I made clear that if the deal could not be fixed, the United States would no longer be a party to the agreement. Over the past few months, we have engaged extensively with our allies and partners around the world, including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

We have also consulted with our friends from across the Middle East. We are unified in our understanding of the threat and in our conviction that Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon. After these consultations, it is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement. The Iran deal is defective at its core. If we do nothing, we know exactly what will happen. In just a short period of time, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapons. Therefore, I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. In a few moments, I will sign a presidential memorandum to begin reinstating U.S. nuclear sanctions on the Iranian regime.

RUSH: This is a big deal.

THE PRESIDENT: We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction. Any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could also be strongly sanctioned by the United States. America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail. We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction, and we will not allow a regime that chants “Death to America” to gain access to the most deadly weapons on earth. Today’s action sends a critical message. The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them.

In fact, at this very moment, Secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un. Plans are being made; relationships are building. Hopefully a deal will happen and — with the help of China, South Korea, and Japan — a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone. As we exit the Iran deal, we will be working with our allies to find a real, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Iranian nuclear threat. This will include efforts to eliminate the threat of Iran’s police car missile program, to stop its terrorist activities worldwide, and to block its menacing activity across the Middle East. In the meantime, powerful sanctions will go into full effect. If the regime continues its nuclear aspirations, it will have bigger problems than it has ever had before.

RUSH: Whoa ho-ho. Ho-ho.

THE PRESIDENT: Finally, I want to deliver a message to the long-suffering people of Iran. The people of America stand with you. It has now been almost 40 years since this dictatorship seized power and took a proud nation hostage. Most of Iran’s 80 million citizens have, sadly, never known an Iran that prospered in peace with its neighborhoods and commanded the admiration of the world. But the future of Iran belongs to its people.

RUSH: And there you have it, President Trump. We’ve got to get to a spot break. We’ve got the thrust of it. We’ll take the break, be back and continue right after this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So we pulled out of the Iran deal, but it’s interesting to be there when it happens. This has been a question. It’s been the subject of academic and political debate for months now, and so everybody’s been talking about the concept of pulling out of the deal in a conceptual way. But then, when it happens and when you hear the president in this speech — which was a right-between-the-eyes speech. I mean, this was a very intense and consequential speech with a bunch of throw-downs to the Iranian regime.

When you see it happen, it no longer is simply an academic exercise or debating society topic. When it actually happens, the power of this… I mean, it hit me. It hit me. This is dramatic, what happened just now, in any number of ways. In the substance of the actual decision to pull out of this deal. Do you remember 61% of Congress voted against this but Obama went ahead and did it anyway? Do you remember the Corker Bill that was designed give Obama cover to sign this thing but making it look like the Senate was ratifying when it wasn’t?

Do you remember all of the big donors that wanted this deal signed, like Boeing and others. because this meant that the Iranians would be able — with this $150 billion infusion of capital — to modernize their national airline and whatever other aspects of their infrastructure? So a lot of donors were in favor of this for reasons that had nothing to do with nuclear weapons in Iran. It was just the opening of another market to them. To actually see this happen, to realize that a major accomplishment in the eyes of the Obama administration has just been erased? This is big, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, I didn’t get a chance to listen, but I’ve got Fox and CNN on here, and right now on Fox, Dana Perino’s got a panel assembled, and it’s Karl Rove, and some guy named Alan, and Marie Harf. Marie Harf, as you know, was a State Department spokesbabe during the Obama administration. And you ought to see her face. Folks, it’s not worth… Well, you can turn it on, but don’t turn up the sound. Keep it on here. She is not happy, and I guarantee you nobody associated with the Obama administration can at all be happy.

Because the way Trump did this today, he did two things here: He attacked the fundamentals of the deal as bad for the United States, and he indicted the previous administration which negotiated it. He said that as a citizen, the amount of money that we gave Iran — a state sponsor of terrorism — was an embarrassment. And it should embarrass everybody, he said. But then before he got to getting out of the deal, have you ever heard an American president refer to the Iranian regime the way Trump did today?

We all do. We all refer to them as state sponsors of terrorism, the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism. We talk about them and their allies in Hamas and Hezbollah and all the other troublemakers that they fund throughout the Middle East, but you seldom hear this. You didn’t hear Bush talk about them this way. You clearly never heard Obama talk about them this way. Obama and the Iranian regime? You know, Valerie Jarrett is Iranian, and that was his No. 1 aide-de-camp.

I think there was a far different view of Iran and its regime in the Obama administration. You just didn’t hear this. He went after them for what they are, and he went after them as the dictatorship that they are. It was just… It was hard-hitting. That’s why I call it consequential. Then to mention that even as he was speaking, Pompeo is off to begin the preparations for the expected conversation with Kim Jong-un on nukes in North Korea.

So as I say, as I’m watching this here, we actually see it happen. It ceased being an academic exercise, it ceased being a debate topic, and it’s actually happened. We actually have pulled out of this deal, and it’s big. And I’ll tell you, folks: I felt proud. I honestly feel proud. I felt a surge of pride when Trump actually did this. You know, I expected him to do it, but there was part of me that would not have been surprised if he would have split the baby and stayed in it for certain reasons while condemning other parts of it.

But, no. This was a pure, clean break, and the application of strong sanctions. So where are we with the Obama legacy? The Paris climate deal? Dead, done. We’re out. The Iran nuclear deal, part of the Obama legacy? Dead, done. We’re out. Obamacare? Every effort was made at the White House to get the heck out of it. We have eviscerated it by eliminating the individual mandate. So we get down to what is the Obama administration legacy? And that is Donald Trump. This is gonna dawn on these people that come from the Obama administration, and it’s gonna make them livid.

And these people that are conducting this investigation into Trump having stolen the election, collusion with Russia? This decision today is gonna ramp them up even more. This is exactly the kind of stuff that’s not supposed to happen! An outsider is not supposed to be able to get elected. An outsider is not supposed to come in and be as unpopular in Washington as Trump is and be able to pull the United States out of a New World Order, globalist deal negotiated by all of Washington, led by Obama just years ago.

This is not supposed to happen, this is not supposed to be able to happen, and Trump knows full well how he is taunting the beast with this. He is teasing them and taunting them. Weaker people would attempt to sue for some peace by giving the establishment what it wanted on this Iran deal, but Trump wisely knew they cannot be appeased. Oh, wait! I’m sorry. There is another Obama administration legacy, and that is that men can use whatever bathroom they want now. I’m sorry. I forgot about that.

But primarily the Obama legacy to America is the Trump presidency, and I am here to tell you that within the Obama administration, they are seething right now, just as the Hillary camp was in disbelief on election night. Do not doubt me. ‘Cause I don’t think they really expected this to happen. I think they thought Trump was all huff and puff, blow the house down, but would cave. I think they all sat there and believed that Trump wouldn’t have the guts to actually do this, that he was just talking big to please his base. But they didn’t think he would actually do it. Some might have. But this kind of stuff’s not supposed to happen in the swamp. This is not supposed to happen, especially with some guy they think is as unpopular as Trump is.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I see where the left is gonna take this. The president’s decision. The left is going to say, “This is gonna make it just impossible to do a deal with the North Koreans. It’s gonna be impossible, because the ChiComs are part of the Iran deal, and we just unilaterally pull out? Well, how can we be trusted to not pull out of the next deal if this is the way the United States is gonna behave? It’s gonna be really, really hard to do a deal with North Korea.”

I think that is so dead wrong! That’s typical swamp mentality. The original Iranian deal was weak because Obama was trying to placate all of our left-wing, socialist, linguini-spined so-called allies in the European Union, and that’s why this deal had no teeth! We finally have a guy making a deal or breaking a deal that has as its primary purpose: Good for the United States. We are the world leader. We defend all of these linguini-spined people anyway when they get in trouble.

And there’s no reason we should weaken ourselves and dilute ourselves and promote a potential nuclear weaponized Iran just to satisfy a bunch of left-wing globalist allies. So Trump has come along and simply said, “It’s not in the best interests of the United States. This deal isn’t, and I’m not gonna be party to it.” By the same token, if he can’t make a deal that is good for United States interests under the concept that we’re the good guys, that we have the moral authority to make these deals…

The North Koreans and the Iranians are not the good guys, they have to be defended against and protected against. If that remains the criteria for which we do deals, we’re gonna be fine. We finally have a president standing up for the United States rather than pretending the United States has been the problem and needs to be cut down to size, which is what the Obama administration was all about. The left, I’m telling you, I know exactly how they’re gonna take this. They’re gonna be lying about how the Obama deal would have denied the Iranians a nuclear weapon.

No, it would not have.

“This is going to sadly disappoint our European allies! They’re never gonna trust us again.”

They simply cannot stand that there’s a new way of thinking in town that puts America first, because putting America first puts everybody else first along with us. That’s simply what they cannot understand. Life, to them, is a zero-sum game, and they think anything good for America has to be bad for everybody else. So they oppose things that are that are good for America. “It’s unfair. It’s not equitable.” Their way of thinking has been dangerous, it’s been undermining us, and it’s about time it came to a screeching halt. The deal that’s gonna be done with Kim Jong-un and the ChiComs? I guarantee you it’ll be good for us or there won’t be one.