President Trump returns to White House, threatening Iran and attacking impeachment

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump returned to work at the White House on Monday with protests against the two major issues pressing him and his administration: Iran and impeachment.

"IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!" Trump tweeted Monday, a day after Tehran announced it would no longer abide by the 2015 agreement limiting its nuclear activity – and as Iran vowed revenge for last week's deadly drone attack on its top general.

Trump's comments came the day before hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered for the funeral of military leader Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in the U.S. airstrike. Iran’s supreme leader on Monday prayed over Soleimani's remains.

As the Trump administration braced for possible retaliation from Iran, the president also called on congressional Democrats to wrap up their impeachment push against him.

"Congress & the President should not be wasting their time and energy on a continuation of the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax when we have so many important matters pending," Trump tweeted.

The president returned to the White House on Sunday night after spending the holidays at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

While Trump had no public events on his schedule, he did have private meetings planned to deal in part with the fallout from last week's decision authorizing the airstrike.

Trump also called into the Rush Limbaugh Show to defend the Iran strike and denounce impeachment, attacking the Democrats on both points. Citing Democratic complaints about the strike, Trump said, "I think it’s incredible the way they talk about Iran."

He also railed against impeachment, tying it to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

"These people couldn't find anything on Trump," he said, later adding: "Even I was very impressed with how clean I am, Rush."

As he returned to Washington from Florida, Trump threatened to attack Iran again if it retaliated. He said his team has picked out 52 specific targets – including cultural sites, which critics said would amount to war crimes.

"They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back to Washington, D.C. “And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way."

In addition to threatening reprisals, Iran has effectively abandoned its nuclear deal with other countries, the agreement from which Trump withdrew the United States in 2018.

In the accord, signed during President Barack Obama's administration, the U.S. and allies had agreed to reduce sanctions on Iran as it gave up the means to make nuclear weapons.

Now, the government said in a statement, "the Islamic Republic of Iran no longer faces any limitations in operations."

While arguing with Iran, Trump also threatened another country: Iraq, which is threatening to expel U.S. troops because the Soleimani attack took place in its country, at the airport in Baghdad.

Soleimani’s daughter, Zeinab, directly threatened an attack on the U.S. military in the Mideast while speaking to a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Tehran that stretched as far as the eye could see. Iranian state TV put the crowd size at “millions,” though that number could not be verified.

“The families of the American soldiers in western Asia ... will spend their days waiting for the death of their children,” she said to cheers. Iranian state television and others online shared a video that showed Trump’s American flag tweet after Soleimani’s killing turn into a coffin, the “likes” of the tweet replaced by over 143,000 “killed” with the hashtag #severerevenge.

In his comments aboard Air Force One, Trump threatened to impose deep sanctions if Iraq followed through on expelling U.S. forces, or unless its government paid the U.S. a substantial amount of money for the military base it built in the country.

Trump's remarks came on the same day Iraq's Parliament voted to support expelling the U.S. military from its country over mounting anger over Soleimani's death, but the resolution is nonbinding.

"We've spent a lot of money in Iraq," Trump said. "We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build. ... We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it."

Some lawmakers said Trump is speaking out erratically and can only make a bad situation worse.

"President Trump is more unhinged by the hour," tweeted Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. "Threatening war crimes and now threatening our Iraqi allies. Telling Congress via Twitter that he can start a war with Iran. This is a very dangerous time. Congress must demand that he comply with the Constitution."

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Trump back at White House, facing Iran and impeachment