Trump Today: Trump Today: President punts Iran deal to Congress and says he’ll attack Obamacare ‘piece by piece’

This column provides a daily update on key presidential actions as well as comments, whether spoken aloud or on Twitter, by President Trump. Like the stock market, the deadline for Trump Today action is 4 p.m. Eastern Time, even as we acknowledge that substantive news can and does occur after hours.

President Donald Trump said Friday he won’t certify Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement, called Obamacare a “broken mess” after halting subsidies to health insurers, and said he’d “always be with” the people of Puerto Rico after suggesting a day earlier he’d pull back on federal aid.

DECERTIFYING THE IRAN DEAL

Speaking at the White House, Trump said “we cannot and will not” certify the Iran deal, and announced he has directed the Treasury to sanction the Revolutionary Guard Corps — something he called a “long overdue step.”

The strategy Trump announced Friday doesn’t kill the Iran deal, but instead leaves its future up to Congress. “We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout,” Trump said.

Reuters

President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Room of the White House on Friday.

ATTACKING OBAMACARE ‘PIECE BY PIECE’

Trump tweeted that he’s beginning to give the country “the great HealthCare it deserves!” Late Thursday, the White House said it was ending billions of dollars in payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act. Yet Trump has privately told at least one member of Congress that the payments may continue if a deal is reached on health care, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Also see: Wall Street analysts expect gains of up to 64% on their favorite health-care stocks.

PROPS TO PUERTO RICO

Trump said he’d “always be with” the people of Puerto Rico, following criticism he got Thursday for saying the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the military couldn’t stay there “forever” after Hurricane Maria. On Twitter and in a speech to religious conservatives, he had warm words for the island, a U.S. territory that was already struggling with more than $70 billion in debt before it was battered by the hurricane.

“We’re going to be there as Americans,” he told the Values Voter Summit.

Also read: Trump threatens to pull FEMA from Puerto Rico.

And: Puerto Rico has more than $70 billion in debt because of this.