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Sanctions levied against Iran after its recent ballistic missile test may reflect President Donald Trumps recent bellicose language, but its likely the work designating those targeted was begun under the Obama administration, according to experts.

The U.S. on Friday morning announced new punitive sanctions against individuals and organizations helping boost Irans ballistic missile program as well as its militant armed forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in response to a ballistic missile test conducted 140 miles east of Tehran on Sunday.

Trump appeared to portray the action as a major policy change. Iran is playing with fire they dont appreciate how kind President Obama was to them, he tweeted Friday. Not me!

Yet at least some of the work related to the sanctions likely began under Obama, which undertook similar measures against Iran.

Certainly, based on past precedent, designations can take time, said Kelsey Davenport, the director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, in an interview. But its expected consistent with what the Obama administration has done in the past. Its not surprising given Iran has continued to test ballistic missiles.

While Davenport couldnt be sure that the vetting had begun before President Trump took office, it would make sense, she said. The Obama administration left open the possibility of additional designations.

As part of the new sanctions, the Treasury Department placed 13 people and 12 companies on a list of specifically designated nationals meaning U.S. citizens and permanent residents cannot do business with them.

Eric Lorber, a senior associate at the Financial Integrity Network with experience advising clients on compliance with the Office of Foreign Assets Control, agreed the Obama administration had likely at least identified possible targets for future designation. It looks fairly straightforward, he told The Intercept during an interview.

Treasury uses certain tags to explain why people and organizations get added to the list. In this case, Treasury connected these new additions to terrorism, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and ballistic missile development.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is not currently listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department though lawmakers have tried to change that several times, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in early January.

The sanctions notably include not just Iranian individuals and corporations but Chinese ones, too. Weve seen this before, Lorber said. In China, certain companies and individuals provide services and equipment for Irans ballistic missile program.

By adding them to the list, the U.S. is discouraging Chinese participation in Irans escalating weapons testing, he said

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, did not directly confirm the sanctions had been worked on during President Obamas tenure, but said they had been staffed and approved and were in the pipeline for some time during a press conference on Friday afternoon. He noted the sanctions were a direct response to Irans ballistic missile test last Sunday.

The announcement also came after President Trumps national security adviser, Gen. Michael Flynn, brazenly said Iran was put on notice a statement President Trump echoed on Twitter.

The days of turning a blind eye to Irans hostile and belligerent actions toward the United States and the world community are over, Flynn said in a statement.

According to Davenport, the United Nations Security Council will likely conduct its own investigation into whether or not the missile testing violated UN security resolutions. The council met on Tuesday to discuss the missile test at the United Statess request. At the time, the State Department was still determining whether or not the test violated security resolutions currently in place.

According to the State Department, the test involved a medium-range missile that was designed to be capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.

A State Department official confirmed to The Intercept that the United States considers the episode to be in defiance of the UN resolutions.This launch was a destabilizing factor in the region, the official said.

Top photo: A military truck carries a Sejil medium-range missile during the annual military parade marking the anniversary of the start of Irans 1980-1988 war with Iraq, on Sept. 21, 2016, in the capital Tehran.

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Trump Is Following Obama Administration's Lead on Sanctions Against Iran - The Intercept

It took former President Obama 10 days from leaving the White House before he spoke out against President Trumps order to temporarily ban people from seven predominately Muslim countries.

The statement was from a spokesman, and it did not attack Trump directly. Rather it appealed to protesters.

President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country, Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for the former president, said in a statement. Citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.

Obama and his team are not ruling out a forceful challenge to Trump in the coming months, Politico, citing people in contact with the former president, reported.

There is debate on how to approach a Trump attack. There is fear that if Obama comes out too early against Trump it could lessen the effectiveness of the message. His team reportedly does not want Obama to be the face of the anti-Trump protests.

I wouldnt be opposed if he spoke out, Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., told Politico. I just dont know what effect it would be.

He continued, In hindsight, I believe it was wrong for Barack Obama to normalize Donald Trump, he said.

Sources told the magazine that Obama is likely saving a more assertive challenge because knows he only gets one change at it being the first time that he takes on Trump himself.

Polls show Obama left the office both popular and trusted.He had appeared more cautious about diluting his influence by quickly second-guessing Trump. Doing so could make it easier for Trump to dismiss critiques as predictable partisan nitpicking. And becoming the face of Trump's opposition could make it harder for the next generation of Democratic leaders to emerge.

Obama said nothing Monday when Trump fired his former appointee Sally Yates, who was serving as acting attorney general. He also won't opine on Trump's announcement of a Supreme Court nominee, former White House aides in touch with Obama said.

When Trump's White House claimed Obama, too, temporarily banned Iraqi refugees, the ex-president's deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes shot back: "This is a lie."

Obama loyalists said the expressions of opposition aren't part of an organized campaign. They reported being energized by a series of group text messages, Facebook groups and email chains in which some of the thousands of one-time Obama staffers are sharing their dismay.

One notably silent figure: Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has yet to criticize Trump since leaving office. An aide said Biden planned to speak out on matters he cares most about, such as foreign policy and women's issues. The aide wasn't authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

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Obama may challenge Trump more forcefully in coming months ...

New York Times

Trump Moves to Roll Back Obama-Era Financial Regulations New York Times President Trump on Friday moved to chisel away at the Obama administration's legacy on financial reform, announcing a series of steps to revisit the rules enacted after the 2008 financial crisis and setting the stage for a showdown with Democrats over ... Dodd-Frank will survive Trump, Obama official saysMarketWatch Trump to sign executive actions targeting Obama financial regulationsThe Hill Trump to Order Dodd-Frank Review, Halt Obama Fiduciary RuleBloomberg RT all 382 news articles »

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Trump Moves to Roll Back Obama-Era Financial Regulations - New York Times

Since we first posted this story, former President Barack Obama's chief photographer, Pete Souza, the man who documented almost every impactful moment of the Obama presidency, continues to post images to his Instagram account, and its 738,000 followers, in response to President Donald Trump's actions and policies. A silent, social media, shade-throwing protest told in visuals from the millions of images in Souza's archive, the photos appear to be Souza's expression of opposition to the recent moves of the Trump administration.

In the past few days, as the world processed Trump's temporary ban on new refugees to the US, Souza has posted on his Instagram account pictures of refugees, from a project he shot in Kosovo:

On Thursday, s headlines about Trump's confrontational phone call with Australian leader Malcolm Turnbull continued to swirl on Thursday, Souza chose to put up a photo of a laughing Obama, being chummy with New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key, and Turnbull, at last September's ASEAN Summit.

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President Barack Obama's former White House photographer is taking to Instagram to show frustration with the new administration.

Pete Souza was responsible for documenting the Obama administration, capturing images of the official duties of the West Wing and more personal, intimate peeks into White House life, snaps he often shared on Flickr and Instagram.

After eight years capturing Obama's every move, Souza is taking some time off -- his new Instagram account biography reading: "TBD."

But he's taken to the visual platform in the last few days, posting a series of photos subtly knocking President Donald Trump.

As the chaotic roll out of the President's executive order on immigration captured headlines and spurred protests over the weekend, Souza posted a photo of Obama and a young refugee in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2015:

On Monday, he posted an image of Obama in the Oval Office with Alex, the 6-year-old boy who wrote to the former president about the Syrian boy photographed in the ambulance.

"Remember Alex," he wrote.

He shared an image of the former president in the East Room during a military naturalization ceremony for active-duty service members:

As Trump prepared to unveil his Supreme Court nominee Tuesday, Souza posted a photo of Obama with his own Supreme Court nominee who never received a vote.

"Merrick Garland. Just saying," he simply wrote.

He also posted a photo of the former president drinking tequila with Mexican President Enrique Pea Nieto, who cancelled his meeting with Trump last week.

Souza got his start in West Wing photography as official White House photographer for President Ronald Reagan, spent part of his career teaching photojournalism and shooting for the Chicago Tribune and National Geographic.

While it's unusual for former presidents to weigh in on current events so soon after leaving office, Souza's former subject has also spoken up.

Obama, who was spotted by TMZ sporting a backwards cap in the British Virgin Islands on Tuesday, weighed in on Trump's executive action through spokesman Kevin Lewis over the weekend, saying he was "heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country."

Souza most recently posted a photo of Obama alongside a young boy at an elementary school with a stethoscope.

"Take a deep breath," he wrote.

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Obama WH photographer throws more shade at Trump - CNN

That last major grade on the performance of the economy under former President Barack Obama is in. Lets call it a B.

The jobs report for January, based on surveys conducted during Obamas last month in office, shows that employers created 227,000 jobs during the month, which was well above economists forecasts. The unemployment rate is now 4.8%, a level just about any president would love to claim as a legacy. During Obamas 96 months in office, the economy added 11.5million jobs, for a monthly average of 120,000. Thats low, but it includes Obamas first 14 months, when the recession he inherited killed about 4.3 million jobs, a hole the Obama economy didnt climb out of until 2012.

Theres one glaring weakness to the Obama recovery: Wages fell for many Americans during the last 8 years, and new jobs created after the recession didnt pay as well as the jobs lost during the downturn. Data from Sentier Research shows that median household income, adjusted for inflation, was almost the same at the end of 2016 as when Obama took office in January 2009. That means the typical family has made no financial progress during the last 8 years. And Januarys data shows the average hourly paycheck rosejust 3 cents from December and 2.5% duringthe past year. Many ordinary people feel like they cant get ahead, and the numbers prove theyre right.

These charts tell the story of the Obama recovery. First, heres total employment:

Manufacturing employment:

Annual percentage growth in hourly earnings:

Source for all three charts: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Obama supporters give him credit for steering the country out of a grueling recession, while critics blame him for an unusually weak recovery. Both sides overstate their case. Like George W. Bush before him and Trump after him, Obama had to deal with profound economic changes that are hard for any president to control, such as an aging population and a technology revolution making many types of jobs obsolete. Besides, for six of his eight years in office, Obama faced a Republican-controlled Congress determined to thwart his economic priorities.

Trump begins his first term with strong momentum on jobs, with most economists predicting a continued recovery. And wage growth is picking up slightly, which could foretell better gains during the next couple of years, as labor markets tighten and employers have to pay more to get the workers they want.

But the Trump economy could stumble, too. Some of his big proposals, such as tax breaks and regulatory reform, could boost growth, at least for a year or two after they go into effect. But if tax cuts add substantially to the national debt, it could push inflation higher than desired and depress growth.

The biggest downer in Trumps economic plan is the threat of new border taxes on imports. The idea is to make imports more expensive, to encourage more domestic manufacturing. But price hikes on many everyday products subject to the tariffs would come first. If new jobs materialized, it wouldnt happen for months or years, while higher prices ate into living standards, especially for low-income workers. Meanwhile, other nations could impose their own tariffs on US imports, producing trade wars that weaken the overall economy rather than strengthening it.

Trump might just be bluffing about border taxes, as a way to get other concessions. Yet by trying to create more of the manufacturing jobs that might have supported a family 30 years ago, he may be chasing a mirage. Many experts say relatively unskilled workers doing manual labor will never earn decent wages in the future, since theres an oversupply of such workers and machines will replace many of them anyway. So Trump needs a Plan B for the economy, and probably a Plan C to deal with unexpected crises and inevitable disruptions. After a few years tangling with the real-world economy, Trump may think Obama did a pretty good job.

Editors note: This story has been updated to correct a math error; the economy added an average of 96,000 jobs per month under Obama, not 191,000.

Confidential Newman tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com

Rick Newman is the author of four books, includingRebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success.Follow him on Twitter:@rickjnewman.

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Obama's economic recovery has ended. Here's how he did - Yahoo Finance