It’s About Revenge: Why Trump’s Willing to Risk War Over Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal

“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”

- Confucius

What was it that caused President Donald Trump to put the U.S. in violation of the Iran nuclear pact and risk a future war? His decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal was met, after all, with a warning from European allies not to block them from staying in the deal. And while countries like China, Japan, and Australia said they would continue to abide by the P5+1 nuclear deal, which prevents Iran from developing a certain grade of uranium to make a nuclear weapon, Boeing stands to lose $20 billion in canceled deals to help restock the aging Iranian commercial air fleet. Even now as Trump ignores top U.S. and Israeli military generals who supported the deal(1), the question “Why?” remains.

Revenge of the Trumpster
In “It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America,” David Cay Johnston may have the answer. He in fact makes a good case that Trump himself has reduced his life philosophy to a single word: “revenge.” Noting that he’s repeatedly said, “I love getting even,” and advised “go for the jugular, attack them with spades.”;(2) the Pulitzer Prize winner further explains how Trump’s behavior is consistent with his stated views on life. In other words, what gives Trump pleasure is getting even or destroying the lives of people he considers disloyal. Like a Richard Nixon and his enemies list, Trump, and life being what it is, dreams of revenge.

Some think Trump’s obsession to get even with then-President Barack Obama actually started at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ dinner. Feeling belittled and demeaned by the president’s jokes, jokes that ranged from leading the “Birther” movement and poor leadership qualities to equating his running for president “as a joke,”(4) he later vowed to destroy everything Obama. Since then, he’s certainly called Obama a “disaster,” “weak, “ineffective,” a “threat”, the “worst president” and “worst thing to have ever happened to Israel,” and “the worst negotiator on everything.(5) He’s also told others privately how he wants to utterly dismantle every Obama Era policy, including his legacy.

The 2015 P5+1 Nuclear Agreement, which refers to the United Nation’s five permanent members and Iran, is just the latest Obama Era policy that Trump wants to destroy. To be sure, the president has already gone after Obamacare-The Affordable Healthcare Act-and a host of military, education, housing, and immigration policies like DACA. Along with eliminating dozens of environmental regulations and international agreements while restarting the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipeline project, he’s completely upended the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and Paris Climate Agreement.(3) Revenge for Trump has not only been sweet, but it’s been thorough to say the least.

Revenge’s Two Edged Sword
Psychologists warn, however, that revenge is not necessarily sweet for everyone. When a revenge-driven leader with an overwhelming ego like Trump’s gambles on behalf of a nation, and seeks to have the transgressor (real or imagined, and in this case Obama and Iran) suffer; punishment becomes different from punishment directed at the transgressor’s behavior. The punishment becomes sadistic and collective instead, injuring millions. Nor is it any longer about the American people and their future but Trump and his future. Period. A leader that puts his/her polarized view and unhealthy revenge before others can moreover cause great harm and sacrifices-as history has proven.

Known as the Vindictive Narcissist, Joseph Burgo further warns about the narcissist’s vengefulness to shame and a need to defend oneself against that shame being revealed. Not only does this leave someone like President Trump thin-skinned and vulnerable to anything that looks vaguely like an attack, but it’s the easiest emotion to manipulate. An unhealthy revenge can also make individuals act irrational, unable to stop at the fantasy state. In effect, when the Vindictive Narcissist feels attacked, he reacts with a no holds barred mentality, imposing a destructive world that governed by cycles of resentment and retaliation instead of trust and cooperation.(6)

Johnston also notes how Trump has lived a life of thumbing his nose at conventions and law enforcement, even learning lessons as a boy from the Gambino and Genovese crime families which dominated New York City. If this be true, it would support what Omarosa Manigault said of her boss. After leaving the White House as Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, she admitted that “Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump.” She then added: “It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.”(7)

Go Ahead, Make My Day
In the meantime, and when considering the real reason why Trump is willing to risk war over Obama’s Iran nuclear diplomacy, many are starting to wonder if the most frightening part of the president’s speech on the Iran Nuclear Deal wasn’t the part when he said, “When I make promises, I keep promises.”

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling.

(1) www.theintercept.com. “Trump Violates the Iran Nuclear Deal-Ignoring U.S. and Israeli Generals Who Supported It,” by Mehdi Hasan., May 8, 2018.
(2) Johnston, David Cay. It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018., p. 7.
(3) www.foxnews.com. “Pullout From Iran Nuclear Deal Is Latest Trump Move to Dismantle Key Obama Policies,” by Samuel Chamberlain. May 9, 2018.
(4) www.chicagotribune.com. “Did the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner Spur Trump to Run for President?”, by Amy B. Wang. February 26, 2017.
(5) www.cnn.com. “Donald Trump Said a Lot of Things About Obama Over the Years,” by Jeremy Diamond., March 24, 2017.
(6) www.psychologytoday.com. “The Psychology of Revenge and Vengeful People,” by Pep Streep. July 19, 2017.
(7) Johnston, David Cay. It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America., p. 6.