Trump’s Tehran Ball and Chain

Love him or hate him (an opinion that includes everyone, since no one is neutral on the man), it must be said of Donald Trump that when compared to prior occupants of the Oval Office, he is no candy ass. His threats are not idle. When staying the reckless course, he never appears to be scanning for an off-ramp.

He doesn’t usually make promises he has no intention of keeping. His aversion to diplomatic language usually results in gasp-producing clarity uncommon for career politicians.

Trump’s MAGA base has largely adored his refreshing presidential unorthodoxy. American Jews benefitted enormously from it, too, even though far too many remain ignorant of its virtues, while others begrudge him with ingratitude.

So, when Trump called for a ceasefire with Iran after turning the country into a defenseless, penniless wasteland of mumbling mullahs reciting Koranic verses about Jews, infidels, and luscious virgins, everyone—all except Iran’s theocrats themselves—assumed he was setting the terms for their long-awaited surrender.

If horny mullahs wanted to fall on their own swords to hasten their rendezvous with celestial virgins, that was their choice. (The virgins, however, have already cringed at the Tinder profiles of these Islamist eyesores.)

Trump possessed all the leverage if this was to be a negotiation. But why was it called a negotiation in the first instance? America finishes wars with decisive battleground victories at Yorktown, Tripoli, Appomattox, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Manila, Midway, Iwo Jima, Dresden and Bagdad. Negotiation is not our strong suit; obliteration is more our style.

Iran, however, excels at negotiation because it favors the side that declares victory simply by achieving a delay. Live to fight another day. Then call in sick. Reschedule. Make demands. Feign moral outrage. Falsify a breach. Manufacture a shiny distraction. Depend on the apathy and ignorance of public opinion.

Iran excels at negotiation because it favors the side that declares victory simply by achieving a delay. Live to fight another day. Then call in sick. Reschedule. Make demands. Feign moral outrage. Depend on the apathy and ignorance of public opinion.

For Iran, being invited as one of the principal parties to a negotiating table is its own reward—and an opportunity for more meaningless claptrap and Islamist gamesmanship.

And when you send your vice president to lead your team—as we did with J.D. Vance—you have just showered Iran with more respect than these barbarians deserve.

Separately, J.D. Vance is the altogether wrong messenger. He’s suitable for a symposium on the opioid crisis in the Appalachians. But Iran’s warlords treated him like an American tourist at his first Middle East bazaar. The mullah’s negotiators smiled and pelted him with magic carpet rides and captivating tales of “Arabian Nights” (where a different kind of execution was postponed), sending the hillbilly packing with a new elegy to consider.

Was the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steven Witkoff, truly off that week? Doesn’t Trump realize that the only person in his inner circle qualified to speak for him is his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio—and not a rube like Vance? And especially in such a delicate and monumental matter such as this!

Trump promised that Iran would never be able to possess nuclear weapons. He said that unlike President Obama, he would never allow a wealth transfer of unfrozen assets and lifted sanctions that would empower the Ayatollahs to oppress their people and finance terrorism around the world.

We had Iran on its knees, ready for lock-up, and now Trump has managed to turn Tehran into his very own ball and chain.

It looks like Trump showed his cards and revealed that re-opening the Strait of Hormuz was the only thing that truly mattered to him. Not the nuclear “dust” or ballistic missiles. Not the sponsorship of terrorist proxies. Not the oppression of the Iranian people. Not the security of Israel from Hezbollah’s ongoing terrorist attacks.

Just the opening of chokepoints for oil out of the Persian Gulf. Once that was accomplished, everything else could either wait or be completely forgotten. Nothing else is supposed to happen for the next 60-days—hooray, for another delay!

Laugh at Obama all you wish, President Trump, but his pallets of hard foreign currency only amounted to $50 billion. You have now agreed to unfreezing $100 billion in monies formerly under sanction, another $300 billion on a reconstruction plan for Iran, and billions more in recaptured oil revenue.

Who has the Iranian Midas touch now?

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), obligates Iran to “never produce” nuclear weapons. But it says nothing about them developing, acquiring, buying, or testing them.

Meanwhile, just as this renewed 60-day ceasefire was purportedly in effect, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has already shut down the Strait of Hormuz, yet again. Why? Because Israel—which is not a party to the MOU—insists on defending itself against Hezbollah terrorist strikes.

Is this the way President Trump shows how his America First agenda works in practice: siding with terrorists over an American ally that has been fighting our enemies longer than we have?

The Islamic Revolution started in 1977 by putting the United States first—taking 52 American Embassy officials hostage for 444 days. That was followed by 47 years of chanting “Death to America!” as an Islamic pledge of allegiance. Remember, we were the “Great Satan”; Israel merely the “Little Satan.” The Ayatollah’s henchmen burned as many effigies of Uncle Sam as they did Israeli flags.

The Islamic Revolution started in 1977 by putting the United States first—taking 52 American Embassy officials hostage for 444 days. That was followed by 47 years of chanting “Death to America!” as an Islamic pledge of allegiance.

Is Trump now seriously saying that Israel is not allowed to defend itself because it will upset the mullahs? I’m sure Vance was fine with that deal point. But given the vice president’s hostility to the Jewish state, that’s not saying very much.

At the G7 Summitt in France, Trump offered this shocker when it came to Iran’s possession of ballistic missiles: “If other countries have them, it’s a little bit unfair for them (Iran) not to have some.”

Is it possible we have reached that moment when it’s time to invoke the 25^th Amendment? Mr. President, thank you for your inestimable support of Israel and the Jewish people, but we now have reason to believe that you are losing your marbles right in front of mullahs who have already tried to assassinate you.

Trump has done himself no favors with this MOU. His “art of the deal” is now defrocked as a fairy tale. The art a mirage; the deal claimed by the side that refuses to fade. Apparently, Trump has no patience for those who are willing to wait him out. He gets bored, and bolts. A cheaper gallon of gas at the pump is more valuable to him than standing on principle and alongside friends.

This could end up squandering his legacy. In hindsight, if he is capable of such introspection, he may one day ask himself whether boots on the ground in Iran was a far better option than turning the Strait of Hormuz into a rabbit’s foot for murderous mullahs?