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Jeff Prescott, the former senior director of the Obama National Security Council, called Trump's allegation of "Absurd and entirely false."
Prescott shared with CNN immigration data from the Department of Homeland Security that showed that the number of Iranians naturalized in the United States during the Obama and Bush administrations was relatively constant.
"There was no connection between the Iranian nuclear deal and the immigration policy," Prescott added.
The unfounded claim first attracted attention with a Monday story on the Fox News website that relied on the words of an Iranian cleric who is also a member of the country's parliament. The article, written by Chris Irvine, editor-in-chief of Fox News, quotes an Iranian news agency quoting an Iranian newspaper quoting the sole Iranian minister, who said the Obama administration had granted the citizenship to 2,500 unidentified Iranians.
The article itself quoted, towards the end of the story, the network's own commentator, the former spokesman for the Obama State Department, Marie Harf, saying, "It sounds like totally invented BS." The story said that the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department declined to comment, and that a representative of former Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson, said: Could not be reached.
Prior to the Fox News article, the claim had received no noticeable attention from the US media.
But after Fox News published its story, other media, mainly in the conservative media space, have published similar stories. These outlets included the Daily Mail, Gateway Pundit and TownHall.
The claims were also shared on Twitter by Fox News host Sean Hannity and Fox regulars David Clarke and Charlie Kirk.
Tuesday morning, a few hours before Trump's tweet, the story made its way onto Fox News airing on "Fox & Friends First," the morning show of the network. It was also aired later on "America's Newsroom," a late-morning news program on Fox News.
"We must not lose sight of anyone that it is a case of Donald Trump parroting Fox News, who peddles the claims of a tough Irishman," Prescott told CNN.
Jake Sullivan, a former Obama official who was involved in the early Iran nuclear talks, also accused Trump of relying on Fox News' thin report to do what he said. he called a statement "completely false".
"What's interesting about this is that what happened is a hard crank in Iran just randomly made this comment, Fox News writes a story about it, then Trump tweets," Sullivan said. stated on "The Situation Room."
"He had every opportunity to call people from his own Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State to ask if that was true and they would have told him that this was wrong. Was not true, "added Sullivan. "Instead, he relies on Fox News and the scariest thing is that he relies more and more on sources like Fox News to get his intelligence rather than on the professionals from his own government. "
Neither a spokesman for Fox News nor the White House responded to a request for comment on Tuesday afternoon.
This would not be the first time Trump has tweeted false or questionable claims from right-wing media. The president has a long history of fueling the conspiracy theories that target his political rivals.
– CNN's Jamie Crawford Contributed to the Report
CNNMoney (New York) First published July 3, 2018: 20:06 ET
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