Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday warned President Trump not to sign a watered down nuclear deal with Iran.
Officials within the Trump administration previously suggested that Iran would not be allowed to enrich uranium under a proposed agreement, but new reports say the nuclear deal would allow the country to enrich a limited low-level uranium for a period of time.
Low-enriched uranium is used in power plants, while highly enriched uranium is used for nuclear weapons.
“If TACO Trump is already folding on Iran, the American people need to know about it. No side deals,” Schumer said of the proposal in a video posted on the social media platform X.
The lawmaker used the new “TACO” term coined on Wall Street which stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out” to describe the leader’s shifting perspective amid negotiations.
Schumer alleged in his Tuesday post that the president was hammering out a private deal with Iran that accounts for less restrictions and dampers the traditional U.S. stance on nuclear weapon development.
“When it comes to negotiating with the terrorist government of Iran, Trump’s all over the lot. One day he sounds tough, the next day he’s backing off. And now, all of a sudden, we find out that [special envoy Steve] Witkoff and [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio are negotiating a secret side deal with Iran,” Schumer said.
“What kind of bull is this? They’re going to sound tough in public and then have a side deal that lets Iran get away with everything? That’s outrageous,” he added. “We need to make that side deal public. Any side deal should be before Congress and, most importantly, the American people.”
Despite the new reporting from Axios, Trump maintains that Iran will not be allowed to enrich uranium under any circumstances.
“The AUTOPEN should have stopped Iran a long time ago from ‘enriching.’ Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM,” Trump wrote in a Monday Truth Social post.
The Trump administration has been engaged in talks with Iran for weeks regarding the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear program.
