President Donald Trump attempted to make his case for the U.S. strikes on Iran this week by deflecting blame back to his predecessors, former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Trump resorted to the now-familiar tactic on Monday afternoon, suggesting the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) curbing Iran’s nuclear development program and negotiated by the Obama administration had fostered conditions that gave rise to the current conflict.

“If I didn’t terminate Obama’s horrendous Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA), Iran would have had a Nuclear Weapon three years ago,” he wrote Monday afternoon on his Truth Social platform. “That was the most dangerous transaction we have ever entered into, and had it been allowed to stand, the World would be an entirely different place right now. You can blame Barack Hussein Obama, and Sleepy Joe Biden. THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!”

A few hours later, the president grumbled about the “Radical Left Democrats” who disapprove of his decision to move ahead with what is expected to be a lengthy military operation without congressional approval.

“The Radical Left Democrats, a Party that has completely lost its way, are complaining bitterly about the very necessary and important attack, by the United States and Israel, on Iran,” he wrote. “What most people understand is that they are only complaining BECAUSE I DID IT and, if I didn’t do it, they would be screaming — Why didn’t ‘TRUMP’ attack Iran, he should do it, IMMEDIATELY? There’s nothing surprising about this!”

“The fact is, whatever I do, they will be on the opposite side,” he continued. “These people are SICK, CRAZY, and DEMENTED, but America, despite them all, is now BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE.”

The JCPOA was widely considered one of Obama’s signature foreign policy accomplishments. Trump, however, withdrew the U.S. from the deal during his first term, calling it “horrible” and “one-sided.”

The president would later claim he’d been prepared to reach a new agreement with Iranian officials ahead of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden, but offered no specifics as to what such a deal would have entailed.

To the dismay of Democrats and some Republicans, Trump and his aides have gone to lengths to justify Saturday’s joint military strike with Israel on Iran, dubbed Operation Epic Fury. At least six American service members have been killed in Iran’s counterattacks thus far.

“We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion they were going to attack first,” Trump said Tuesday, while meeting with German Chancellor Freidrich Merz. “I didn’t want that to happen.”

His comments, however, conflict with those of Pentagon officials with access to intelligence reports, who say they saw no sign that Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S.

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