MORNING GLORY: President Trump and the biggest decision of his life
The most important decision of President Donald Trump's life is before him.
It is the decision of whether or not to order the United States military to assist Israel in destroying what remains of Iran's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The U.S. has the capabilities to do so. Does President Trump have the will to order it be done?
If he does, he will almost certainly bring this war to an end and open the road to a vast expansion of the Abraham Accords.
It is unrealistic to believe that the hard-liners around Ayatollah Khamenei will want to formally capitulate to the U.S. It is even more difficult to envision the "Supreme Leader" of Iran, Ali Khamenei —who has been a reckless fanatical ideologue for 36 years as dictator over the Persian people—ever countenancing the return of Iran to being a "nation instead of a cause" to borrow from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace scholar Karim Sadjapour.
But if President Trump orders our military to destroy the most hardened targets in Iran's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, he will be ending a war that has been underway since first Ayatollah Khomeini and now Ayatollah Khamenei began waging against the U.S. in 1979, a war that has befuddled and defeated the best hopes and most complicated plans of every president since Jimmy Carter, who was shocked by the medieval fanaticism of the "true believers" behind the coup of the 1978-1979 revolution which toppled the Shah and then eliminated all other aspirants for government in Iran.
Trump would stand alone as the president who understood how to defeat this evil regime. He will be seen by history as the president who had the strength and vision to finally end the malign aspirations of the Islamic Republic of Iran's rulers.
As Trump did to ISIS he can do to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' most ambitious terror project: acquiring nukes and the ballistic missiles on which they can ride far and wide around the globe. Whether or not most of the world's leaders outside its alliance of tyrants say so, they will congratulate Trump privately as will history publicly.
It is important to note that when then-plain-old businessman and real estate developer Donald Trump came down the escalator 10 years ago on June 16, 2015, to announce his candidacy, he included in his remarks the warning that "Iran is going to take over the Middle East…Think of it. Iran is taking over Iraq, and they're taking it over big league."
Trump added —ten years ago!— his pledge about Iran and nuclear weapons: "I will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. And we won't be using a man like Secretary Kerry that has absolutely no concept of negotiation, who's making a horrible and laughable deal, who's just being tapped along as they make weapons right now…"
Donald Trump laid out his entire program in that speech and the most important parts of it deal with Iran and China.
China is a superpower which must be dealt with carefully, the worst instincts of its regime deterred, its exploitation of the world stopped.
But Iran is the immediate menace because if it gets a nuclear weapon, the fanatics who run that regime will use their first weapon against Israel and their second against us.
The regime atop the Persian people, oppressing them terribly, is different from every other adversary of the United States and the West because it is a theocracy, and one with horrific visions of the "end times" which does not reject, but which could actually encourage nuclear war. This extreme branch of Shia Islam is a uniquely evil threat to the world.
And President Trump is in a position to end the nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and destroy the practical steps those ambitions require for the foreseeable future while setting a precedent —a "Trump Doctrine"— for the ages: Do not threaten or kill, wound or kidnap Americans and America, for we will stop you from doing it again.
The appeasement caucus within the United States is loud. It's "sunk costs," especially for those with fingerprints on President Obama's disastrous "JCPOA" agreement or President Biden's disastrous decision to end President Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign from his first term, are lined up urging opposition to Trump's decisive action. They know their legacies are already in ruins, but they do not want President Trump's to grow beyond the Accords, Operation Warp Speed and many other accomplishments. They fear being exposed as foolish and wrong more than they fear America being endangered.
Most of all, they do not want Trump remembered alongside the presidents who brought hot or cold wars to an end.
President Trump can join the first rank of presidents with this decision. Pray he makes the right one.
Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor, and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel's news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University's Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
24 minutes ago
- CNN
Vance refers to Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla as ‘José' while defending Trump's use of National Guard in LA
Vice President JD Vance on Friday took a swipe at Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, whom he incorrectly called 'José Padilla,' and defended the Trump administration's controversial use of the California National Guard in Los Angeles. 'I was hoping José Padilla would be here to ask a question, but unfortunately, guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't the theater, and that's all it is,' Vance told reporters, speaking from an FBI mobile command center that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is currently using in Los Angeles. Vance dismissed Padilla's appearance last week at Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's press conference as 'pure political theater.' Padilla was forcefully removed, ordered to the ground by law enforcement and placed in handcuffs after attempting to ask Noem a question. Padilla, California's first Latino elected to the US Senate, had interrupted Noem as she was giving remarks in the Los Angeles FBI headquarters on the Trump administration's response to protests in that city against Noem's department and its immigration-enforcement efforts. When asked about the vice president calling the senator by the wrong first name, Vance's spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk brushed it off, telling CNN, 'He must have mixed up two people who have broken the law.' Padilla's communications director Tess Oswald wrote on X, 'As a former colleague of Senator Padilla, the Vice President knows better. He should be more focused on demilitarizing our city than taking cheap shots. Another unserious comment from an unserious administration.' California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom also called Vance out on X, saying it was 'not an accident.' On Friday, Vance also reacted to a federal appeals court allowing President Donald Trump to maintain control over thousands of California National Guardsmen. 'That determination was legitimate, and the president's going to do it again if he has to, but hopefully it won't be necessary,' Vance said. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals late Thursday granted a request from Trump to lift, for now, a lower-court ruling that had required the president to relinquish control of roughly 4,000 guardsmen from the Golden State that he had federalized to beef up security in Los Angeles amid unrest over immigration enforcement. 'And I think what the Ninth Circuit said very clearly is when the president makes a determination, you've got to send in certain federal officials to protect people,' Vance said, while lashing out at California's Democratic leadership for their handling of the unrest. The vice president also defended the administration's immigration policy, saying Trump wants to prioritize deportations of violent offenders or 'really bad guys,' but that no one who's undocumented should feel immune from enforcement. When asked whether the administration's deportation tactics had gone too far, Vance argued that he didn't think 'we've been too aggressive.' 'Anytime we make a mistake we correct that very quickly,' Vance said.
24 minutes ago
Mahmoud Khalil released from Louisiana jail after 3+ months in ICE custody
A federal judge granted his release on bail, ruling the Trump administration was punishing him over his pro-Palestinian speech.
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
River group, city meet to talk about access to the Black River
Jun. 19—WATERTOWN — A group of river activists and the city have started working out their longtime differences regarding the group's concerns about access to the Black River. Members of New York Rivers United, a group of whitewater advocates and rafting enthusiasts, met with city officials last Friday to talk about a series of projects that they would like to see completed to give them more river access. The hour-long Zoom meeting "was cordial and productive," said New York Rivers United member Alex Barham, adding that he was satisfied with its outcome. City Manager Eric Wagenaar said he thought it "was a good meeting." For more than a decade, the group and the city were at odds over what is known as the Route 3 Wave, once a popular whitewater kayaking course that was a site of a world championship that drew thousands of spectators. A large rock moved in its way and damaged the course. But the city never corrected the issue. According to Rivers United, the repairs were required by a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license for the city's Marble Street hydroelectric plant. The city has now agreed to look at the Route 3 Wave. Rivers United members and city officials will go to the site in August when river levels are down to see what can be done to fix the problem, Barham said. The city also has agreed to repair some stairs to the river and complete other repairs along the river near Newell Street, Wagenaar said. "We have to work on some things with them," Wagenaar said. In December, Rivers United, which advocates for accessibility to the river, filed a complaint with FERC about the city never correcting the Route 3 Wave problem. The group also has claimed that the city violated the hydro plant's FERC license on a daily basis since it was renewed in 1995. The river group conducted an audit of the facility that found numerous alleged violations. That prompted the state Department of Environmental Conservation to urge FERC to conduct a noncompliance investigation into the plant. In May, a six-member team from the DEC completed an on-site inspection of the hydro plant. Wagenaar said Wednesday that the DEC will be back next week for a follow-up visit. FERC also required the city to submit a report about the group's complaints about the hydro plant. The city submitted the report last Friday. "They're looking at it," he said, adding that he doesn't know when FERC will complete its response. Rivers United members Steve Massaro and Barham and Dick McDonald of the state Department of Environmental Conservation attended the meeting with the city. City Engineer Tom Compo, hydro plant employee Jeffrey Hammond, Michael A. Lumbis, the city's planning and community development director, and Wagenaar were among the city officials at the meeting. In 1995, the river group, the DEC and FERC negotiated the terms of the current license, designed to mitigate significant commercial, environmental and recreational impacts identified during the relicensing process. Under the 1995 agreement, an account was set up to distribute funding for river accessibility projects. The city and Rivers United were at loggerheads over who decided how to spend that money. The group claimed the city spent about $60,000 from that account, but the DEC and Rivers United never approved it. About $225,000 remains in the account.
