A defining moment: Trump must choose the path of Reagan, not Obama’s failure

One door says “Truman/Reagan” and the other door says “Carter/Obama/Biden.”

president Donald Trump You must choose one. once again. This time, the choice will determine Trump’s place in history.

On three different occasions, the 45th and 47th Presidents of the United States entered through the first door.

Trump ordered The assassination of General Qassem SoleimaniCommander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, January 3, 2020.

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Trump followed that up by ordering him to act during his second term Operation “Midnight Settlement” against Iran nuclear weapons facilities in June last year, and again with Operation Unresolved Resolve to kidnap Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in January this year.

President Trump He took bold risks three times and won major victories for the United States three times, restoring American deterrence along the way.

Trump had to restore US deterrence in 2020 because the Iranian regime worked so intensely on the former president Barack Obama Through the infamous 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a plan that secured Iran billions of dollars in cash, hundreds of billions in sanctions relief and a guaranteed path to nuclear weapons. The Middle East’s surrender to the mullahs was disguised in thick language and ridiculous timetables. But the Iranian theocrats knew they had won.

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President Trump has called the JCPOA “the worst deal in history” dozens of times, and he has always been right. It was the equivalent of the Munich Agreement between Neville Chamberlain and Hitler. The damage to the world was enormous.

While the president Joe BidenIran’s disastrous and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan did not directly concern Iran, but rather deeply damaged America’s standing in the world and defined the Biden presidency as one mired in catastrophic failure from the jump.

President Trump worked to reverse the damage done by the JCPOA through strikes targeting Soleimani and Iran Iranian nuclear facilities.

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But now, the Iranians are facing thousands of ballistic missiles that are already threatening American bases throughout the Middle East, Israel, and our allies in the Gulf. The nature of the regime has been fully revealed even to the complacent on Team Obama and Team Biden: the ayatollahs ordered the shooting or machete killing of tens of thousands of their own citizens last January. Does anyone doubt that they will direct their missiles at American cities once the range is developed? Crazy killers will kill, over and over again.

Because of Presidents Obama and Biden, Ayatollah Khamenei and his IRGC followers believe that America always “blinks” in the end. They still don’t think Trump is any different from Obama and Biden. They view Trump’s one-day missions as short deviations from the pattern of appeasement followed by Obama and Biden. Iranians do not fear Trump. yet.

The Iranians are making huge missiles with massive warheads. They already have more than a thousand missiles in their arsenal, and they have done just that Accelerate the production of thousands More after Trump’s strike on nuclear weapons facilities last year.

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The Iranians are working to expand the range of their missiles. Iran’s longer-range missiles may now be able to reach Europe. They will threaten the United States sooner rather than later, and we don’t have Trump’s Golden Dome yet.

So Trump must decide now what to do about those missiles and the mass killers running Iran. Trump ordered A massive accumulation of US military assets Strengthening US military assets within striking range of Iran, and deploying the defensive systems we have to protect our bases and allies.

Now he has to decide which door to pass through.

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Truman and Reagan (both Bush) would order the strike.

Carter, Obama, and Biden were standing back and pretending that they had succeeded in defusing the crisis, when in fact they had beheaded American deterrence.

Rarely do we see such a stark choice presented to him President – A crossroads in his personal path regarding history, and a crossroads in America’s path to its future.

Trump may be remembered as the man who came to the rescue of the Iranian people after nearly fifty years of fanatical dictatorship and protected America from an unfolding threat, or as the president who backed down more spectacularly than any president before him.

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On August 26, 1990, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher spoke with President George H.W. Bush about Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iraq. “This was not the time to waver,” the Prime Minister told the President.

This was probably the least necessary encouragement of all, because the old World War II fighter pilot was not the type to back down. (HW was shot down twice and returned to his mission after both). But Thatcher’s line has gone down in history because it is so British and so useful in so many contexts.

Iran’s collapse or survival depends on one choice within the Revolutionary Guard

It’s useful now. President Trump simply cannot afford to become wobbly no matter how attractive the Carter/Obama/Biden door is as a director. In other words, Trump “cannot succeed Obama.”

I repeat: President Trump’s choice will determine his place in history. Everything else during his eight years will be secondary to what he decides in the near term.

Every other achievement will be secondary. All criticism will matter little when eliminating the threat the Iranian regime poses to the world is on the table.

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President Trump could choose to do what no other president since Jimmy Carter has dared to do: cripple or end the fanatical regime in Iran that is already threatening and destabilizing the Middle East every day and that will soon be able to threaten the United States if it is not stopped.

Pray he chooses wisely. American national security, the hopes of the Iranian people, and the future of the Middle East depend on this decision.

Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News Channel contributor and hostThe Hugh Hewitt ShowHe is heard weekday afternoons from 3pm-6pm ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on the Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and lunches on the West Coast in more than 400 affiliates across the country, and on all streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel News Roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. He is an Ohio native and alumnus Harvard College and at the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a professor of law at Chapman University’s Fowler Law School since 1996 where he teaches constitutional law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has appeared frequently on every major national television news network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major U.S. newspaper, authored dozens of books and moderated a number of Republican candidate debates, most recently in November 2023 GOP presidential debate in Miami and four GOP presidential debates in the 2015-2016 cycle Hewitt focuses his radio show and 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 40 years of broadcasting today.

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