President Donald Trump has made no secret of his aversion for the Obama-backed JCPOA. Throughout his election campaign he called it “terrible” and “the worst deal ever.” Yet, for various reasons he does not act immediately to abrogate it once in office. In fact, it takes him almost a year-and-a-half to do so, perhaps constrained in part by repeated reports from the IAEA that Iran has been abiding by its agreement. In the meantime, he signals that he is prepared to use his self-styled negotiating virtuosity to strike a better deal for the United States. Reflecting a 180-degree turn away from Obama’s approach to the Islamic Republic and back to darker days of mutual antagonism, Trump returns to the tactic of relitigating decades-old grievances dating back to the 1979 revolution.