WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump returned to work at the White House on Monday with protests against the two major issues pressing him and his administration: Iran and impeachment.
“IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” Trump tweeted a day after Tehran announced it would no longer abide by the 2015 agreement limiting its nuclear activity – and as officials vowed revenge for last week’s deadly drone attack on an Iranian general.
As his administration braced for possible retaliation from Iran, Trump also called on congressional Democrats to wrap up their impeachment push against him.
“Congress & the President should not be wasting their time and energy on a continuation of the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax when we have so many important matters pending,” Trump tweeted.
The president returned to the White House on Sunday night after spending the end-of-the-year holidays at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.
While Trump had no public events on his schedule, he did have private meetings planned to deal in part with the fallout from last week’s decision authorizing the airstrike that killed Iran military leader Qasem Soleimani.
As he returned to Washington from Florida, Trump increased anxieties by threatening to attack Iran again if it retaliated, and adding that his team has already picked out 52 specific targets – including cultural sites, which critics said would amount to war crimes.
“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back to Washington, D.C. “And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”
In addition to threatening reprisals, Iran has also effectively abandoned its nuclear deal with other countries, the agreement that Trump withdrew the United States from in 2018.
Signed during the President Barack Obama administration, the U.S. and allies had agreed to reduce sanctions on Iran as it gave up the means to make nuclear weapons.
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Now, the government said in a statement that “the Islamic Republic of Iran no longer faces any limitations in operations.”
While arguing with Iran, Trump also threatened another country: Iraq, which is threatening to expel U.S. troops because the Soleimani attack took place in its country at the airport in Baghdad.
In his comments aboard Air Force One, Trump threatened to impose deep sanctions if Iraq followed through, or unless its government paid the U.S. a substantial amount of money for the military base it built in the country.
Trump’s remarks came on the same day that Iraq’s Parliament voted to support expelling the U.S. military from its country over mounting anger over Soleimani’s death, but the resolution is nonbinding.
“We’ve spent a lot of money in Iraq,” Trump said. “We have a very extraordinarily expensive airbase that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build. … We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it.”
Some lawmakers said Trump is speaking out erratically, and can only make a bad situation worse.
“President Trump is more unhinged by the hour,” tweeted Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. “Threatening war crimes and now threatening our Iraqi allies. Telling Congress via Twitter that he can start a war with Iran. This is a very dangerous time. Congress must demand that he comply with the Constitution.”
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House of Representatives will vote this week on legislation to limit Trump’s military actions on Iran.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has introduced a similar resolution in the Senate.
Pelosi is also considering when to submit impeachment articles to the Senate for a trial of Trump.
The Democratic-run House voted last month to impeach Trump over evidence that he pressured Ukraine to investigate a U.S. political opponent, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
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