President Donald Trump's action in pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal sent a strong message to North Korea that it should not expect to make their own "lopsided" deal with the United States, Sen. John Barrasso said Wednesday, shortly after news broke that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was bringing three American prisoners home.
"President Trump is reasserting American leadership, restoring American power around the world," the Wyoming Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
Meanwhile, Trump clearly knows that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is a "ruthless dictator," so any agreement must "eliminate the nuclear weapons," the senator said.
"It has to do the sorts of things the Iran deal did not do," Barrasso added, "and it has to be up front. You make your agreements and then after they get rid of the nuclear weapons then we can do the sorts of things we need to do with sanctions. You don't get rid of the sanctions first."
Barrasso also said he does not trust Kim, and any deal reached with him must be approached from the angle of "distrust and verify."
"We need the verification," said Barrasso. "We didn't get what we needed with Iran. We need a tougher and better deal with North Korea than we ever had with Iran."
Meanwhile, the president is willing to recognize a bad deal and walk away from it, "which is the exact thing we've done with Iran," Barrasso said.
He also commented that the Iran deal gave "lots of money" that has been used for terrorism in the past few years.
"We know that they have continued to do things in violation of what we would want in terms of strategic missiles," and Barrasso. "In terms of their ability to get a nuclear weapon. It may have slowed them down a little bit, but it is a path to the bomb.
Iran has also continued weapons deals with enemies of the United States, the senator said, and that has not slowed down, let alone stopped.
"I'm so happy the president has stepped up and boldly said we're done with this deal," said Barrasso.
"Europeans want to work in trying to make it a better deal, well, then I'm sure we'll be willing to listen, but it will have to be a permanent end to any kind of nuclear weapon development in Iran.
"Get rid of ballistic missiles and no more activity to terrorism. Iran is the world number one terrorist organization."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.