Donald Trump loves deals, all kinds of deals. That’s how he made several fortunes, assembled unlikely political coalitions against all odds to win the presidency, not once but twice, and now he’s applying the same strategy to diplomacy.
We’ve witnessed a series of his moves abroad in recent weeks, moves that revealed new dimensions in President No. 47 that President No. 45 did not manifest.
This weekend, in a bold decision that’s both ominous and promising, Donald Trump ordered military attacks on another country. That’s something that has proven perilous for previous U.S. presidents recently.
The announced goal of stealth-bombing three nuclear weapon sites in Iran with the unprecedented penetrating power of 15-ton explosives was to cripple that rogue nation’s ability to build nuclear weapons for use in its ongoing terror-export campaigns.
Trump proclaimed the early Sunday morning attacks “very successful.” For now, we can only estimate the impact on the determined drive of those fundamentalist Shia dictators to possess weapons of mass destruction for use on infidels, the impact on other national leaders who might contemplate similar weapons, on United States’ allies and adversaries, and on domestic politics at home.
Can the ruthless regime of bearded zealots survive with its military leadership decimated and its weaknesses so exposed and demolished by intrepid Jews, Mossad moles, and the penetrating explosiveness of weapons specifically designed to demolish their nuclear ambitions? If mullah rule collapses, what replaces it?
Throughout his time in public life, Trump has made much of his desire and success in avoiding new foreign military entanglements that inevitably become messy, long-term struggles.
The bloody Iraq war was to destroy the weapons of mass destruction that, it turned out, the brutal Saddam Hussein did not possess. But it unleashed murderous sectarian violence that drew in U.S. troops.
The Afghanistan war was partly 9/11 retribution on the Taliban for hosting al Qaeda and partly posse for Osama bin Laden.
A decade later, with the naïve help of a local doctor now left to rot thanklessly in a Pakistani prison, Navy SEALs did eventually find and terminate Bin Laden.
But what began as a short-term military venture morphed into a $2 trillion, Ikea-style nation-building kit. It took 20 years for people to realize the kit came without screws or bolts. The region's feuding fiefdoms had successfully resisted conquerors going back nearly 2,400 years to Alexander the Great. They did again.
And the Taliban still rules.
Domestic critics, including opportunistic Republicans, don’t need facts to go after Trump. Already, some say the Iran attack warrants another impeachment. They’ll charge that Trump needed congressional authorization. Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama didn’t have that to oust Moammar Gaddafi and turn Libya into a lawless state. But he's a Democrat.
Conveniently overlooked is Trump’s long-standing vow that Iran must never be allowed to have nuclear weapons. Most reasonable people who would rather not be vaporized for their religion would agree.
This weekend, with yet another headfake, Trump saw to it that such an existential threat to humanity is over, or at least postponed for a long while.
In a four-minute address to the nation, Trump said Iran’s three key nuclear enrichment and storage facilities had been “obliterated” by B-2 stealth bombers and Tomahawk missiles.
He urged Iran to seek peace and warned that other targets remain and are quite vulnerable now, given Israel’s ongoing destruction of Iran’s air defenses and military leadership.
READ MORE: President Trump Addresses the Nation Regarding US Military Strikes Against Iran
The Genius Deception Trump Pulled on Iran Just Before the Attack on the Iranian Nuclear Sites
Since the bloody Hamas terror attack of Oct. 7, 2023, and despite international criticism, even from Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has led the systematic destruction of Iran’s leaderships and proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
Using pager bombs, hacked Iranian communications, drones, and even targeted assassinations of nuclear scientists, Israeli security forces weakened Iran. Then, more recently, came an intense aerial campaign against missile and defense systems.
United bands of rebels finally ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, eliminating that Iranian ally and infiltration route.
The weekend's massive attack has revealed two key things. First, is the effective combined strengths of the military tag-team of the U.S. and Israel, both now enjoying determined leaders.
If you want, you can believe official denials that they worked together.
And second, is the stronger, smarter, more mature Donald Trump in his second coming.
Maybe it’s the Trump Whisperer — his wise, calm, self-effacing chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Maybe it’s Trump’s own political maturation and evolving wisdom after enduring these past 10 years of joys, setbacks, collusions, and disturbing deceits. Or a combination.
Whatever it is, Donald Trump 2.0 has found his game.
Trump’s political reputation is not founded on nuance. His critics cling to the vision of a man who gets what he wants by taking it.
Trump takes opponents head-on, according to this image, calls them names, forces them to comply, and then does a victory dance to ensure everyone saw their defeat and his success. Remember the juvenile nicknames he pinned on GOP competitors in 2015-16?
Trump can still be loud, of course. He always will be. He covets the attention that loud brings. And it works. That’s his brash brand. And his base loves that.
Trump’s in-your-face volume is the exact opposite of the Establishment schlumps that used to control D.C. politics for their own ends, making empty promises to voters who had no clout or champion.
Now, those pompous twits of both parties, who emit words like fog machines, need to shut up or be shut out.
Remember, in Trump’s first term, he would impulsively think of things he wanted to say to dominate the news cycle? So, he’d create a media opportunity to get the attention he craved, sometimes several times a day.
He succeeded in attracting attention. And he did dominate news cycle after news cycle, taking up all the media oxygen. But every one of those incidents was like a self-inflicted IED that blew up the careful orchestration of his administration’s daily and weekly messages of progress.
Though unintended, the ongoing Trump message became political tumult, which prompted too many 2020 voters to mark their ballots for the seemingly safe, familiar face of Joe Biden.
He wasn’t safe, of course. He was stored in his basement by elder abusers, hiding the worsening mental and physical decay that was a national security threat until 23 weeks ago.
It’s unlikely any justice will befall Joe, Jill, Hunter, or any of the other lying, elder abusers from those dark days of grifting and lies.
What we’ve seen, however, since the DC sun came up 153 days ago is a smoother, smarter, more effective Donald Trump. He remains surely the most accessible commander in chief ever.
But his frequent afternoon media events that become Q&As are no longer about petty personality beefs with pols or aspiring media celebrities.
Trump now refuses media bait to comment on criticisms, which media used to obscure the administration’s intended news.
In his first term’s 208 weeks, a focused Trump signed 200 executive orders total. In his first five months this time, among other things, the 47th president signed 165 executive orders, 44 memoranda, and 70 proclamations in a fury of activity, setting new priorities and undoing Biden screwups. And none with an autopen.
The blizzard of actions has left leaderless Democrats so stymied they’ve had to fall back on lawsuits as attempted roadblocks.
People often talk about a president’s ultimate power being the ability to launch nuclear weapons. True. But in my opinion, the real power comes from his bully pulpit, the chief executive’s built-in power to command attention anytime on anything.
I wrote here last summer of Joe Biden’s crippling inability to lead by speaking coherently.
By contrast, this is a Trump strength, along with endurance. Ronald Reagan had that, too. Oh, look! Both men came out of show business.
That skill is the ability to speak clearly and plainly, to make their words sound thoughtful and authentic without practice, pretense, or condescension. This skill is underappreciated because when present, it’s invisible.
Politicians and their speechwriters, of which I was once one, work hard to produce these nuggets. They’re called applause lines and are marked (Pause for applause) in the speaker’s text.
Trump’s sophistication has improved. Contrast how he spoke in 2017 about North Korea’s Kim Jong-un actively developing nuclear weapons and the systems to deliver them globally. Trump moved two nuclear carrier strike groups to the region, called Kim “little rocket man,” and threatened “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
Unlike every preceding president, Trump did bring Kim to meet a U.S. leader — twice.
Fast forward to Trump Term 2, when Iran, another member of the Axis of Evil and top terrorism exporter, was accelerating uranium enrichment in pursuit of a bomb.
Instead of simply spouting denunciation, Trump orchestrated a lengthy public campaign of patience, seemingly attempting to convince Tehran to give up its ambitions.
Predictably, the mullahs refused. Trump set a 60-day deadline for an agreement. With no fanfare beyond strategic leaks to media, Trump positioned B-2 bombers and naval forces for a potential strike.
On Day 61, Israel launched days of intense attacks on Iranian command structures and air defense systems. This just happened to conveniently clear the path for Saturday's B-2s, the only plane capable of carrying the only weapon capable of penetrating down to Iran’s deeply-buried nuclear facilities.
On one hand, Trump needed to threaten Iran credibly to negotiate, as he did with North Korea’s Kim. Of course, Obama’s failed attempt to buy Iran off its weapons plans made a convincing argument that Tehran’s rogue leaders had no intention of relinquishing their dream of delivering martyrdom to infidels.
Trump needed to look strong at home but reasonably cautious about attacking.
What struck me the past few days was Trump’s skilled, seemingly spontaneous answer to questions on the Iran outlook. Watch the below C-SPAN video.
Delivered without notes, here’s Trump’s concise, clear statement of intent, fact, and threat, ending on a note of hope:
I don't want to fight either. I'm not looking to fight. But if it's a choice between fighting and them having a nuclear weapon, you have do what you have to do. And maybe we won't have to fight.
To my eyes, those 39 words are a perfect summation of Trump 2.0. As a new president in his first term, Trump would have run straight at the other side, seeking to knock them down and score.
This time, he's just openly, plainly, confidently, and briefly laying it out so you can understand that, as commander in chief, he's going to do what needs to be done.
And then he went out and did it.
