OPINION:
President Trump has been crystal clear: Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. On Wednesday, he gave further details: Either Iran unconditionally surrenders and dismantles its nuclear capacity, or the U.S. bombs it. Both options achieve the same end: Iran’s nuclear program will no longer exist.
Despite this clarity, the woke alt-right wants you to believe that Mr. Trump is abandoning his “America First” policies and potentially engaging the U.S. in another “endless war,” placing our soldiers in harm’s way.
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
First, we must delineate between “America First” policies domestic and abroad, and it’s not like Mr. Trump is sacrificing one at the expense of the other.
Domestically, Mr. Trump has focused on closing our southern border, reindustrializing America’s manufacturing base, rebalancing trade relationships, slashing regulations and improving our military readiness. In Mr. Trump’s first five months, border crossings have plummeted, U.S. unemployment levels are hovering at historically low levels and blue-collar wages have risen 1.7%, the most significant increase since 1968.
Internationally, the motto of “America First” has been associated primarily with President Reagan’s slogan of “peace through strength.” In other words, America must exercise strength to achieve peace. The world is watching. If the U.S. fails to deliver on Mr. Trump’s red line that Iran may never have a nuclear weapon, there will be no deterrence to other bad actors, namely China and Russia. Threats are toothless if one fails to follow through.
That leads to the following question: Does Iran have nuclear capabilities? The woke far right would have you questioning that, using Iraq and President George W. Bush’s promise of weapons of mass destruction to seed doubt in the intelligence communities and Israel’s assumption that they do. After giving Iran 60 days to negotiate in good faith, Israel attacked Iran on Day 61. Also on Day 61, the International Atomic Energy Agency formally declared Iran in breach of its nonproliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years.
“I’ve yet to see a single good argument for why Iran needed to enrich uranium well above the threshold for civilian use. I’ve yet to see a single good argument for why Iran was justified in violating its non-proliferation obligations. I’ve yet to see a single good pushback against the IAEA’s findings,” Vice President J.D. Vance wrote Tuesday on X.
Now, that leads us to: Would Iran use its nuclear capability against the U.S.? We know that Israel is under direct threat from Iran, but is America?
Iran has been at war with us for 46 years. In 1979, it took U.S. diplomats and Marines hostage. Four years later, it killed 220 U.S. Marines in Beirut. In 1985, it hijacked TWA Flight 847.
Iran killed 603 of our service members in the Iraq War and facilitated the transit of al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11. In 2010, Iran put a bounty of $1,000 for every U.S. soldier killed by the Taliban. In 2024, the Justice Department unsealed the indictment of Farhad Shakeri, who was thought to be operating on behalf of Iran in plotting to assassinate Mr. Trump in the months leading up to the election. History has shown that Iran would not hesitate to use its nuclear capabilities.
That brings us to U.S. boots on the ground.
No one in the Trump administration is arguing this should be done. Instead, they are contemplating a surgical strike on Iran’s nuclear sites using American B-2 stealth bombers, loaded with two 30,000-pound bunker busters. The strike is not without risks: The targeting has to be exact, and the bombs need to be manually detonated and have never been tested in warfare. Mr. Trump is weighing these dangers, not closing the door to negotiations. Still, he has proved he can act decisively, successfully eliminating Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
The woke alt-right then argues that if we strike, the Iranian regime will surely fall, and the U.S. would have to lead “regime change,” of which we have a terrible track record.
This argument assumes the regime will fall, which is not the stated outcome of U.S. policy. The aim is the elimination of Iran’s nuclear weapons. Regardless, no one in the White House has suggested the next U.S. steps would be to occupy Iran, pick its new leaders and help it install new governing institutions. Those choices would be left entirely to Iran, where public support for the supreme leader is at most 20%, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Iran’s Arab neighbors have expressed no interest in filling a potential power vacuum, have quietly supported Israel’s mission and are looking for increased commerce in the region. Notably, Israel hasn’t targeted Iran’s oil, giving any new leadership an economic pathway to rebuild.
Last, Israel has already done the hard work. The Israel Defense Forces and Mossad have total control of Iran’s airspace. They have decimated Iran’s proxies: Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. Israel has targeted and killed Iran’s top nuclear scientists and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leadership. It has command of Iran’s airwaves. It has taken out many of Iran’s nuclear sites. Israel is on the precipice of winning the war.
U.S. involvement will only hasten Iran’s fate. The longer the war continues, the more civilian lives will be lost, the greater the risk of strategic errors and the longer the status quo in the Middle East remains unstable. Mr. Trump has indicated he wants the war to end quickly, and his patience is thin.
Ultimately, Mr. Trump is the one who defines “America First” policies, so beware of up-and-comers vying to continue his movement and convince you otherwise.
Mr. Trump will make the final decision on Iran, which will be in America’s best interests. In that, MAGA world needs to trust.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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