Ex-GOP lawmaker rips 'bozo' Trump for 'giving Iran 20 times the money Obama did'

Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger tore into President Donald Trump over his handling of the war with Iran on Saturday, accusing the president of buying his way out of the conflict and walking away with almost nothing for it.

"Trump lies constantly and he is desperate for the Iran war to be over," Kinzinger wrote in a post on X that accompanied a video. "So desperate that he's giving Iran 20 times the money Obama did, and getting nothing in return, except an open strait that Iran will charge a 'maintenance fee' to all ships. Well done, bozo."

In the video, recorded selfie-style from the driver's seat of his car, the ex-congressman argued that Trump's record of dishonesty has gutted Washington's credibility to the point that Americans now wait to hear Iran's version of events before believing their own government.

"It's because Donald Trump lies constantly, all the time," Kinzinger said. "The constant lies take away any version of credibility. And that is a terrible place for us to be in."

Then he ran the numbers as he sees them.

"Barack Obama gave Iran $1.5 billion and we lost our mind. And I think rightly so. We called that out," Kinzinger said. He claimed Trump "has already given Iran $3 billion," lifted sanctions on Iranian oil when the war started, and is now "set to give Iran an additional around $25 or $30 billion."

"Barack Obama, $1.5 billion. Donald Trump, 30-some billion," he said. "And we don't even have the nuke stuff."

Kinzinger ticked through the war aims he said the administration has quietly abandoned: regime change, an end to Iran's ballistic missile capacity, and a halt to its funding of proxy groups.

"None of that is going to happen," he said. "Instead we are fighting to open the strait. That's what Donald Trump wants, and he's willing to pay $30 billion for it."

"If there is anybody left on the planet who says this guy is anything but a complete bozo on foreign policy, it's because they're blinded by the cult," Kinzinger added in the weekend video. "That's the only reason."

The broadside landed as the administration signaled a deal was within reach. Trump, Iranian officials and Pakistani mediators said this week that a memorandum of understanding could be signed within days, an agreement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, lift the U.S. naval blockade of Iran's ports and roll back oil sanctions.