Trump's Iran deal withdrawal sets off needless international crisis

Although the deal didn’t address every concern, it was successfully preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Trump has instead opted for an uncertain future, raising the risks of an Iranian bomb and a U.S–Iranian conflict.

It’s another page in the playbook that guided Trump’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a decision he has since tried to reverse — and his approach to North Korea, which began with a series of increasingly hostile tweets that could have precipitated a war.

The bottom line: Trump’s decision on the nuclear deal is the latest example of his tendency to manufacture foreign policy crises where none exist. His “shoot first, ask questions later” foreign policy ultimately makes us all less safe.

Emma Ashford is a research fellow at the Cato Institute.