CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Roasts Trump With Comparison to Obama Amid Iran Deal

CNN anchor and senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins roasted President Donald Trump by comparing and contrasting him with former President Barack Obama amid fallout from the Iran deal.

Ever since Trump signed the Iran memorandum of understanding at the Palace of Versailles, the 14-point plan was met with derision from across the political and ideological spectrum.

Many have compared it unfavorably to the deal Obama struck with Iran, and which Trump tore up.

On Thursday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins opened her show with a video essay connecting dots to form a picture of Trump as obsessed with his legacy and Obama’s, bookended by Trump’s boast of Hitlerian power and Obama’s speech at the opening of his presidential center:

K. COLLINS: And tonight, this comes as the President himself has been facing backlash from members of his own party over this very agreement. But despite that, we’ve seen a defiant President Trump also embracing a comparison to some of the most ruthless tyrants in recorded history.

Earlier today, he posted a document that says he is — that he says, is from a presidential historian, and it argues that he’s more powerful than the likes of Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Stalin, Mao, and Hitler. Trump commenting, quote, “Sounds good to me” at the top of this document.

Now, some backstory here. In their new book, “Regime Change,” New York Times reporters, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan write, that the President actually specifically asked an aide to show them this same document that he posted on Truth Social today, when they were interviewing him, back in March, about his place in history. Those reporters found out that the historian that the President was referencing here is actually a Hall of Fame golfer’s caddy who wrote this document.

Which all of that leads us to this new interview with the President, by Marc Caputo of Axios tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARC CAPUTO, AXIOS: What have you learned about, not just the exercise of power, but the limits on your power as a result of the conflict?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: There are no limits.

CAPUTO: No limits?

TRUMP: No, none. I haven’t learned that lesson yet. I know there are. But you know, there are no limits. We defeated them totally militarily.

CAPUTO: Beginning of the conflict, you had talked about, you only wanted unconditional surrender. And–

TRUMP: Well–

CAPUTO: –the MOU doesn’t look like unconditional surrender.

TRUMP: Well, it really probably is unconditional surrender.

CAPUTO: It is?

TRUMP: I think so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

K. COLLINS: The President’s legacy has clearly been on his mind a lot lately, including when comparing his page-and-a-half agreement that he has struck with Iran and signed last night, at Versailles, with President Obama’s Iran deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: We didn’t pay for it like Obama did.

Barack Hussein Obama sold out Israel for Iran.

Obama was on the side of Iran, not Israel.

Barack Hussein Obama.

Obama wouldn’t do it.

Barack Hussein Obama.

Barack Hussein Obama.

So, I say it, the Obama deal was a road to a nuclear weapon.

With Obama, they were able to enrich very quickly.

The Obama deal was one of the dumbest deals I’ve ever seen.

I terminated the JCPOA, that’s Barack Hussein Obama’s horrible deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

K. COLLINS: Today, at the opening of his Presidential Center and Library, we heard from President Obama, as he offered his own contrast with every other living president, Republican and Democrat, in attendance for that speech.

Now, President Trump’s absence was not surprising, but it was notable, and it was certainly felt, as the Obamas offered a competing vision of presidential power.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, 44TH U.S. PRESIDENT: A belief in the intrinsic dignity and worth of all people, and that no one is above the law or beneath its protection. A belief in checks and balances in our government, and an accountability that comes with an independent judiciary, and a robust free press.

(APPLAUSE)

B. OBAMA: A belief that our military and law enforcement owe allegiance not to any president or political party, but to the people and our Constitution.

(APPLAUSE)

B. OBAMA: A belief in the peaceful transfer of power after the people have spoken in fair and free elections.

When we encourage cooperation between nations, instead of trying to dominate and bully and squeeze every advantage just because we can.

MICHELLE OBAMA, ATTORNEY AND FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: The lies about your birthright, your faith, your patriotism, the outrage when you stated the biological fact that if you’d had a son that he too would be Black.

Yet you were unflappable at every turn.

You were doing the people’s work, rescuing our economy, expanding health care, ending a war, ordering the bin Laden raid, saving an auto industry, winning a Peace Prize.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

K. COLLINS: As that was happening in Chicago. At the White House, President Trump was awarding the Medal of Honor, joking about how much he also would like one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The Congressional Medal of Honor, I wanted to give it to myself, but I was informed I couldn’t do it, and I couldn’t find anything where I was actually worthy. So, here we are. You understand that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

K. COLLINS: Now, the comparisons between two presidents continued on Capitol Hill, with a significant bloc of Republican senators who have been sharply questioning in terms — the terms of the President’s Iran negotiations.

We also notably heard from the Republican Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who argued that the $300 billion reconstruction fund, in his view, quote, “Would make Iran’s payoff under President Obama’s 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison.” Surprising criticism there for Roger Wicker.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.

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