Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday slammed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as a liar for claiming his father, President Donald Trump, agreed in the memorandum of understanding with Iran “to pay to rebuild” the Islamic republic’s military capacity as part of the deal to end the war.
Cruz told The Daily Wire in an interview Wednesday that “it is not remotely in America’s interest for us to rebuild that capacity that we just destroyed,” according to an excerpt shared on X by the outlet’s opinion editor, Benjamin Domenech — a post that came to Trump Jr.’s attention.
“The only problem with this quote is that @tedcruz is lying thru his teeth about the deal,” Trump Jr. wrote, quoting the post. “We’re not giving them a cent and he knows that. Using fake news about the peace deal to undermine @realDonaldTrump is the opposite of MAGA.”
Cruz painted the tentative peace deal with Iran as a strategic misstep, as numerous GOP hawks on Iran have done since Trump announced the memorandum on Sunday, and said “giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is a bad idea.”
The Iran war began in late February with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Tehran.
“Under the terms of what’s been released, somewhere between $10 billion and $30 billion will flow to the Ayatollah immediately before they make even a single nuclear concession,” Cruz told the right-wing media company. “I think that’s ill-advised.”
He added: “That money, if it goes to the Ayatollah, will go to fund terrorists trying to kill Americans and weapons that will be used to try to kill Americans. And it also appears to formalize a permanent role for the Islamic regime controlling the Strait of Hormuz.”
The strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes, was open before the war began. Iran, which has now reportedly begun granting commercial ships safe passage, is permitted to sell its oil under the agreement, which could net them billions in revenue. State news outlet Mehr reportedly stated Iran could earn $10 billion in oil sales with revenue as high as $30 billion in the first 60 days.
A U.S. official told Axios the memorandum released Wednesday is “a performance-based agreement.” It is intended to launch 60 days of further negotiations.
Left: Marcus Ingram/Getty Images; Right: Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press
The unnamed official explained, “Iran can only access any benefits of the MOU if they abide by all of the points they agreed to — including no nuclear weapon, neutralizing its enriched material, and not interfering with the free flow of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”
The memorandum contains agreements from the U.S. to drop sanctions, help develop a $300 billion reconstruction plan, grant Iran access to part of its frozen assets and cease military hostilities. It includes a vow from Iran to “not procure or develop nuclear weapons.”
This latter provision was at the core of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action secured in 2015 by then-President Barack Obama. Trump infamously exited the deal in 2018 during his first term in the White House and has falsely claimed repeatedly that it had “allowed” Iran to develop nuclear weapons.
Cruz said Wednesday it’s “difficult” to see any “possible benefit to America” in Trump’s deal.