President Donald Trump’s shock Twitter announcement today that he’s replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Iran hard-liner Mike Pompeo immediately generated considerable backlash from advocates who fear that he could precipitate the president’s threats to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
Trump’s next opportunity to reimpose sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal falls on May 12. The president had tasked Tillerson with negotiating new restrictions on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program with European partners by then, a tight deadline only complicated by today’s announcement.