{"id":214435,"date":"2026-06-20T02:28:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/obama-says-u-s-may-be-worse-off-now-than-before-iran-war-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T02:28:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:28:42","slug":"obama-says-u-s-may-be-worse-off-now-than-before-iran-war-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/obama-says-u-s-may-be-worse-off-now-than-before-iran-war-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama says U.S. may be \u2018worse off\u2019 now than before Iran war – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former President Barack Obama said it seems like the United States has either returned to the status quo or is \u201cworse off\u201d now than before President Donald Trump launched the war on Iran<\/a> in February.
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\u201cWe\u2019ve now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, you know, put enormous strain on our military. A lot of people have died. And it feels like we\u2019re back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse off,\u201d Obama said in an interview with \u201cTODAY\u201d co-host Craig Melvin that aired Friday.
Obama made the remarks during a conversation with Melvin ahead of the public opening of the Obama Presidential Center, when asked for his reaction to the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran<\/a>.
\u201cI am very happy to see a ceasefire. And I\u2019m hopeful that it holds,\u201d said Obama, who questioned the rationale for the war on Iran.
The former president noted that under the Iran nuclear deal negotiated during his administration, \u201cIran had agreed not to develop nuclear weapons.\u201d
\u201cThis administration, or a prior version of this administration, pulled out of it, which caused then Iran to develop more nuclear capacity,\u201d Obama said.
Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018, during his first term. That agreement laid out detailed steps<\/a> that Tehran should take over more than 25 years with the aim of restricting Iran from obtaining or developing a nuclear weapon. The current MOU does not fully address the fate of the country\u2019s nuclear program.
Trump signed the MOU<\/a> during a dinner at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday night. It sets a 60-day deadline for negotiators to reach a more permanent deal to end the conflict.
During the interview with \u201cTODAY,\u201d Obama said that his new presidential center is a reminder of what America was like under his leadership.
\u201cI think it\u2019s true and I think it\u2019s a reminder of what America is. There\u2019s no doubt that we are going through a period right now of disruption, polarization,\u201d he said, adding that he understands that people \u201cfeel as if our democracy, our civic habits and virtues, our shared understanding of how we treat each other has started to crumble.\u201d
The former president said he\u2019s glad that the center and museum remind people \u201cnot of the past\u201d but of \u201cwhat\u2019s inside all of us.\u201d
\u201cWe all have the capacity to feel a civic responsibility to make sure our government works,\u201d Obama said. \u201cWe all play a part in assuring that our elected officials are accountable. And that\u2019s not something that I think we can afford to suggest is \u2014 is behind us.\u201d
Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeFormer President Barack Obama said it seems like the United States has either returned to the status quo or is \u201cworse off\u201d now than before President Donald Trump launched the war on Iran in February.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}