President Trump said the memorandum of understanding with Iran was never intended to be a final agreement. In an interview with Hugh Hewitt, Trump called it a “test” to determine whether Tehran would honor its commitments, arguing they failed because “they break deals.” <\/p>\n
HUGH HEWITT: Well, was the M.O.U. that your negotiators brought back, was that a sidesaddle M.O.U? Was that built to fall apart? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It was built to test. It was a test. We didn’t know. It didn’t, look, memorandum of understanding, when you’re dealing with sleazebags, it [doesn’t] mean much. And they don’t mean much when you’re dealing with honorable people, too, because it’s a memorandum of understanding. It doesn’t mean much. And I said why are we even, you know, it’s a standard tactic in the U.S. that you go to a memorandum of understanding, and then you go to the deal. I said just go to the deal first. But you know why? It was sort of a test. And they weren’t there. They didn’t honor the test. We had it. We had this deal settled numerous times, and I said watch. I guarantee, watch, and they never, they never followed it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n