Retired General Mike Flynn, one of Donald Trump's most prominent military supporters, issued a dramatic public warning to the president Sunday, urging him to walk away from his Iran nuclear negotiations and accusing the Tehran regime of lying directly to Trump's face.
"Dear Mr. Trump — the regime in Iran is lying to you and your negotiators. Period, stop," Flynn wrote on X, in an open letter addressed directly to the president and copied to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "Do not believe a word they say."
Flynn, who briefly served as Trump's first national security advisor before being fired and later pardoned by Trump for lying to the FBI, expressed sympathy for the president's desire to end the conflict while drawing a hard line against any deal that leaves the current Iranian government intact.
"I know you want to get out of this mess," Flynn wrote. "All Americans want this unnecessary war to end." But he argued that Iran's support for Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis made any negotiated settlement worthless without first dismantling those networks entirely.
Flynn also raised the specter of a $25 billion payment to Iran — a figure that has circulated in reports about the emerging deal — warning it would be used for "nefarious purposes down the road."
"No nukes in Iran may be a noble idea," Flynn wrote, "but the regime has blatantly lied to our faces before. Why do you now believe they will tell you the truth?"
In a pointed jab timed to the Memorial Day weekend, Flynn demanded Iran publicly apologize for killing American soldiers and Marines before any deal moves forward. "How about getting them to first publicly apologize for killing American soldiers and U.S. Marines many times over — especially on this Memorial Day weekend."
Flynn closed by invoking Trump's own brand against him, suggesting the president's instincts as a dealmaker should give him pause. "The art of the deal tells you to do that from time to time," he wrote. "Now may be that time."
The intervention adds Flynn's voice to a growing chorus of Trump allies — including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump's own Truth Social base — who have broken with the president over his Iran diplomacy in recent days, suggesting the deal faces significant resistance from within the MAGA movement itself.
