Follow us on social

Chuck Schumer

Activists demand Schumer delete Trump-Iran 'TACO' post

More than two dozen groups called on the NY Democrat to delete a video attacking the president for 'folding' on the talks

Reporting | QiOSK

More than two-dozen national and New York-based organizations on Wednesday urged Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to retract a social media video that took aim at President Trump over his negotiations with Iran.

In the video, posted on June 2, Schumer attacked Trump for purportedly not being tough enough with Tehran and accusing the administration of negotiating “side deals” out of public view that are allegedly less favorable to the United States.

“If TACO Trump is already folding on Iran, the American people need to know about it. No side deals,” Schumer said, referring to the moniker “Trump Always Chickens Out,” a term lobbed at the president intending to criticize his tariff policies. “When it comes to negotiating with the terrorist government of Iran, Trump’s all over the lot. One day he sounds tough, the next day he’s backing off. And now, all of a sudden, we find out that [special envoy Steve] Witkoff and [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio are negotiating a secret side deal with Iran.”

The groups — including Brooklyn for Peace, Peace Action New York State, Demand Progress, National Iranian American Council Action, and the Quincy Institute, which publishes RS — sent a letter to Schumer on Wednesday singling out the social media post and accusing the Minority Leader of acting “profoundly reckless” on Iran.

“[We] expect that you will treat weighty issues of war and peace as a statesman and with the serious gravity that it deserves,” they wrote. “Unfortunately, your recent social media video seeking to out-hawk President Trump’s negotiations with Iran fails that test.”

They said there are valid reasons to challenge the president, yet “negotiations aimed at ensuring Iran can’t weaponize its nuclear program and preventing war deserve support, not political attacks.”

The letter adds, “We urge you to retract your video and to move in line with the vast majority of Americans who support a deal with Iran and oppose a disastrous war.”

Emily Rubino, Executive Director of Peace Action New York State, said that her organization has been urging Schumer to champion diplomacy over war regardless of who occupies the Oval Office, but “his recent inflammatory comments on Iran do just the opposite.”

Schumer, Rubino added, “should be using his leadership to ensure that transparent and meaningful negotiations are taking place between the U.S. and Iran towards a deal, not to continue stoking the tensions of war.”

“Lives are hanging in the balance as the U.S. and Iran seek to resolve the nuclear crisis at the negotiating table,” said NIAC’s Ryan Costello. “Yet instead of emphasizing the importance of resolving this crisis through diplomacy and not war, Sen. Schumer took a page from Tom Cotton and Mike Pompeo's efforts to sabotage Obama's diplomacy ten years ago, baselessly attacking the negotiations and seeking to goad Trump into maintaining hardline positions that risk war.”

Talks are set to resume this week and Trump himself has recently signaled pessimism about any favorable outcome.

"Iran is acting much differently in negotiations than it did just days ago," Trump said during an interview with Fox News on Tuesday. "Much more aggressive. It’s surprising to me. It’s disappointing, but we are set to meet again tomorrow – we’ll see."

Meanwhile, amid an increasingly bitter dispute between Trump’s more loyal supporters and neoconservatives agitating against a nuclear agreement and pushing for war, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will reportedly introduce a resolution in the coming days calling for the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program as the only acceptable outcome of the negotiations, an outcome similar to what Sen. Schumer was advocating in his social media video and one that the president’s supporters, and the groups criticizing Schumer, say is likely to lead to war.


Top image credit: U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) attends a press conference following the U.S. Senate Democrats' weekly policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 10, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
Reporting | QiOSK
Luís Inácio Lula da Silva
Top image credti: Isaac Fontana / Shutterstock.com

Trump's tariffs against Brazil over Bolsonaro will backfire, on us

Latin America

Various members of the Brazilian government have been trying unsuccessfully to reach their counterparts in Washington ahead of August 1. That is the date Donald Trump has set for the imposition of 50% tariffs on all Brazilian exports unless the administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva finds a way to meet two very controversial conditions set by the U.S. president.

Those conditions include dropping charges against Lula’s far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, who faces a possible prison sentence for his role in an alleged conspiracy to undermine the 2022 election and adopting a more lenient stance towards U.S.-based social media companies operating in Latin America’s largest nation.

keep readingShow less
Sentinel
Top image credit: www.afnwc.af.mil
Air Force conducts third Sentinel static fire test > Air Force ...

The expanding gravy train for the new land-based Sentinel nuke

Military Industrial Complex

The Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) nuclear weapons program, in which the Air Force is moving to replace its old land-based nuclear missiles with new ones, has been troubled from the start.

Running at more than 80% over-budget, the Sentinel’s gargantuan costs and slow development pace even triggered a critical DoD review under the Nunn-McCurdy Act, which says if a program exceeds a 25% cost overrun it must be terminated unless the Pentagon determines it meets the criteria to continue. The DoD insisted the Sentinel would continue.

keep readingShow less
Lindsey Graham, Elbridge Colby Mitch McConnell
Top photo credit: Sen. Lindsey Graham (Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons); Elbridge Colby (Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA); Sen. Mitch McConnell (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Summer of the 'isolationist' smear: Colby and restraint in crosshairs

Washington Politics

When reports surfaced in early July that Donald Trump’s administration would be pausing some U.S. aid to Ukraine, it didn’t take long for the knives to come out.

Anonymous officials inside the administration, as well as critics on Capitol Hill who disagreed with the policy, pointed the finger at Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official and a longtime advocate of refocusing U.S. military power to the Pacific.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.