America First: As promised throughout his run for office, President Trump yesterday announced that he’s pulling the US out of the Iran nuclear deal and reinstating severe economic sanctions. In  so doing, he’s dismantling the signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, Barack Obama. He’s also acting against the pleas of France, Germany, and Britain.

Trump said in an address at The White House, “The fact is, this was a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made. It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace, and it never will.” He said, “Not only does the deal fail to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but it also fails to address the regime’s development of ballistic missiles that could deliver nuclear warheads.”

Iran is angry but says it will stay in the deal also signed by China and Russia in 2015.

Critics of Trump fear that Iran may return to developing a nuclear weapons, spuring a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

The President seemed to rely in part on documents revealed in a dramatized press conference last week held by Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu. He revealed nothing that hasn’t been known for years, but Trump bit the hook. He said yesterday, “Today, we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie. Last week, Israel published intelligence documents — long concealed by Iran — conclusively showing the Iranian regime and its history of pursuing nuclear weapons.”

Part of Trump’s motive in scrapping the Iran deal is what he perceives as his success so far in getting tough with North Korean and bringing its leader Kim Jong-un to the table. Trump seems to think that if he puts the screws to Iraq he can come back with a better nuclear arms deal.

Follow the Money: After the 2016 election President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen was paid half a million dollars by an American company with ties to a Russian oligarch, The NY Times reports.

Between the days before the election and this past January, about $4.4 million flowed into Cohen’s corporation, Essential Consultants LLC, much of it from major American companies who have official business with the President, the Times reports. Among them is AT&T, which has a merger with Time Warner sitting before the Justice Department. AT&T paid at least $200,000 and said in a statement, “Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration.”

Essential Consultants is the same corporation that paid $130,000 in hush money to the porn actress Stormy Daniels on behalf of the President.

The Times reporting confirms a lot of what was first discovered by Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, the fire breather who’s been doing wall-to-wall television interviews to get under Trump’s skin. While it’s unknown whether any of the transactions through Essential Consultants were illegal, Cohen is under investigation for bank fraud.

Nation: James Shaw Jr. The man who wrested a rifle away from the shooter in a Nashville Waffle House has raised about $230,000 for the victims through GoFundMe. — Comedian Bill Cosby, recently convicted of sexual assault, has been stripped of his Kennedy Center Honor. Several honorary degrees also have been revoked by universities. — Russian hackers were looking to undermine confidence in the US voting system in the runup to the 2016 election, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded in a brief report released yesterday. — The West Virginia Republican Party is relieved that former coal executive Don Blankenship lost his bid to be the nominee for US Senate. The unabashed Blankenship ran despite having gone to prison  for a mine disaster that killed 29 men.

Him Too: Former New York Attorney Gen. Eric Schneiderman faces two and possibly three criminal investigations into accusations by four women that he was physically abusive with them. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, “I want to make sure that the district attorney who is investigating is wholly impartial.”

This may be a case of “round up the usual suspects” as politicians try to get on the right side of the sexual harassment issue. If Schneiderman broke the law, the statute of limitations has probably run out.

Hot Lava: There’s no end in sight for the eruption of Hawaii’s Mt. Kilauea volcano, scientists say. They don’t know what sparked it or what will end it. Lava is spewing or seeping out of 12 fissures in the ground after Kilauea’s basin of magma mysteriously drained away underground. Our Chief Volcano Correspondent Patti Kam tells us, “Our glow is gone from the caldera. Something we’ve grown accustomed to since 2009.”

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