GOP lawmaker's Iran math on Fox News draws mockery: 'Not how anything works'

A Republican lawmaker's comments about the Iran agreement during an interview with Fox News on Monday drew laughs online.

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), an Army veteran and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, defended the Trump administration's reported move to give Iran billions of dollars, saying it was good and that the taxpayer-funded expense made sense because "we destroyed so much."

"OK, maybe they do end up getting $20 billion, let's say—we're still $300 to $500 billion ahead considering we destroyed their Navy, destroyed their Air Force, destroyed all those nuclear facilities I already spoke about, their steel manufacturing, their drone manufacturing," Mast said.

Journalists and political commentators questioned the GOP congressman's math.

"Math degree from Trump University," S.V. Dáte, White House correspondent at HuffPost, wrote on X.

"This is not how anything works," Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic, wrote on X.

"This time we'll send barges full of cash. That will show them! Mast leaves out that when Obama sent cash, it was the Iranians' money that had sat in interest-bearing accounts for decades. This time it will be U.S. Taxpayers who foot the bill," Decoding Fox News, a newsletter and podcast founded by Juliet Jeske, wrote on X.

"Would Brian Mast call this...., 'palettes [SIC] of cash,' or 'plane loads of cash?'" Comedian and artist Patric Reynolds wrote on Bluesky.