Obama Goes After Trump Again After Key Elections Called
President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama were at odds again in public after elections in Hungary saw the administration’s preferred candidate, now former Prime Minister Victor Orban, defeated by a left-wing candidate, Peter Magyar.
Before the election, Trump dispatched Vice President JD Vance to Hungary for a last-minute boost of U.S. support.
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But that didn’t seem to make much difference, and Magyar won comfortably, leading Obama to gloat online.
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“The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world. Most of all, it’s a testament to the resilience and determination of the Hungarian people – and a reminder to all of us to keep striving for fairness, equality and the rule of law,” Obama wrote on X.
Orban governed Hungary for 16 years, and he won each time through democratic elections.
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Meanwhile, Obama has been feuding with Trump and the MAGA movement in other ways, including supporting redistricting in Virginia and California after opposing it in Texas, Missouri, and other red states.
He also used the occasion of the death of the Rev. Jesse Jackson to attack the Trump administration and Republicans in general with a fearmongering speech that even drew the rebuke of Jesse Jackson Jr., the late civil rights icon’s son.
Earlier this month, Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth both took Obama to task for gifting the Iranian regime with “piles” of cash that enabled Tehran to obtain the ballistic missiles and weapons that were used to target American and allied installations throughout the Middle East.
Their remarks come as the United States and Israel enter the fourth week of Operation Epic Fury, which aims to eliminate Iran’s military capabilities following Trump’s claim that the Iranian regime is rebuilding its nuclear weapons program.
During remarks at the FII PRIORITY Summit on Friday, Trump also lashed out at Obama for his ‘nuclear deal’ with Iran that the current president ended during his first term after revealing that Tehran was cheating and continuing to develop a nuclear weapons capability in secret.
Trump mentioned the $1.7 billion payment made to Iran during the execution of the Iran nuclear deal. He described the funds as cash delivered by airplane and expressed his dissatisfaction with this action, stating that it provided Iran with the means to finance hostile activities.
“That Barack Hussein Obama, did you ever hear of him? Barack Hussein Obama, he had the Iran nuclear deal. He went to Iran, he paid them,” the POTUS said. “Remember, he sent two Boeing 757 jetliners. They took the seats out and they piled it with cash, like 1.7 billion of cash.”
“That’s when I realized the president is very powerful. The presidency is a very powerful thing when you can do that. I haven’t done that yet. I haven’t found a reason to do that yet, but that’s big,” the Republican leader expressed.
At the time, Obama justified the massive payout by claiming Iran was owed the money over a legal claim related to a failed arms deal in 1979 after the Islamic revolution ushered in the ayatollah and deposed the Shah, taking dozens of Americans prisoner and holding them for more than 440 days.
“You know, there wasn’t a bank in DC, Virginia, or Maryland that had any money after that disaster,” Trump said.
“But they sent the cash to Iran, but more importantly, they signed an agreement, the Iran nuclear deal, which, if I didn’t terminate it in my first term, I terminated it almost immediately. If I didn’t terminate it, they would have had a nuclear weapon long ago, and they would have used it on the Middle East, Israel,” the commander-in-chief further stated.
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Trump ‘Briefed With Options’ Amid Stalled Iran Talks
The Trump administration on Wednesday continued to express optimism about negotiations with Iran, even as Iranian officials insist that no direct talks have taken place, according to reports.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister said no face-to-face meeting had occurred in Doha and that no direct negotiations with the United States were currently planned.
Despite Tehran’s position, President Donald Trump described the discussions as “very good,” apparently referring to indirect contacts involving U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner communicating through third-party intermediaries.
Vice President JD Vance struck a firmer tone the same day, warning that the United States could escalate its response if Iran refuses to cooperate or takes actions that further destabilize the Middle East.
His remarks underscored the administration’s message that while it remains open to a diplomatic resolution, additional measures remain on the table if negotiations fail.
“If Iran attempts to rebuild its nuclear program, threaten its neighbors and support terrorism, President Trump has options to deal with it,” Vance noted, without elaborating.
Earlier, a Wall Street Journal report claimed that Trump had been briefed on several military options, including “all-out war,” but Trump said he wanted to give diplomacy more time.
Vance additionally stated that the US “dropped bombs on Iran because it fired on ships, and we used leverage to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”
He went on to suggest that the U.S. could take that course of action again.
Vance also said the current talks are “to discuss the details and flow of maritime traffic.”
The vice president, addressing U.S. military personnel at a naval base in Virginia on Wednesday, also said that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back decades.
“If you look at what our own intelligence says about their nuclear program, they are further away from developing a nuclear bomb than they have ever been since basically the last 20 or 30 years,” Vance said, though he stopped short of Trump’s claim that the program had been “totally obliterated.”
“What the president asks you to accomplish is to destroy the defense industrial base of that country, so that if they ever decided to rebuild their military, or if they ever decided to rebuild that nuclear program, they would be harmless to do it. You did that exactly as well,” Vance added, per the Times of Israel.
The VP went on to say that Trump is now “negotiating from a position of strength because of you.”
“If the Iranians try to rebuild the nuclear program, the President’s got options. If the Iranians try to threaten their neighbors or fund terrorism, we’ve got options,” Vance continued.
“But what we must never do is drop bombs just for the sake of dropping bombs. And that is what the president will never ask you to do,” Vance added.
“He’ll ask you to go to war, yes. But when he asks you to go to war, he’ll tell you exactly what you’re going for,” the veep noted further.
“And I think that is what you should expect out of your political leadership.”
“What I noticed about the people who are attacking the administration for negotiating is that they are the very same people who, for example, encouraged us to just go a little bit further and just drop a few more bombs in places like Afghanistan,” he said.
“If you go back to the mistakes that were made, those very same people refused to say what we were dropping bombs for,” he added.
“We dropped some bombs a couple of days ago… Because the Iranians were shooting at commercial ships… We applied some leverage, and we’ve had free commercial transit for the last three days,” Vance told the naval personnel.
