>Because - and correct me if I'm misunderstanding things - so far as I can tell it wasn't really an "agreement" to begin with. Your somewhat understanding thin

>Because - and correct me if I'm misunderstanding things - so far as I can tell it wasn't really an "agreement" to begin with. Your somewhat understanding things. It definitely was an agreement, passed by the UN, the EU, and thus somewhat the US. The disagreement is whether a congressional vote is necessary as well, which most UN agreements don't require but allow for congress to vote against them. There weren't enough senators against the agreement for that to happen, but because there weren't enough to vote in favor of it either Trump's team argued it wasn't an official treaty. So whether it was an official agreement is somewhat unclear, but your description that it was an ad-hoc trust building exercise is not correct.