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President Trump took to Truth Social in the early morning hours on Friday with a message that left absolutely nothing to the imagination: “We are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise.” He then added a line that should give every mullah still breathing something to think about — “Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.”
Nearly two weeks into Operation Epic Fury, the American military campaign launched in conjunction with Israel on February 28, the president’s rhetoric matches the reality on the ground. Iran’s navy is gone. Its air force is no longer operational. Missiles, drones, and the regime’s broader military infrastructure are being systematically dismantled by what Trump described as “unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time.” The man is not bluffing, and Tehran knows it.
Trump framed the campaign in starkly personal terms. “They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them,” he wrote. “What a great honor it is to do so.” That kind of language will make the Georgetown foreign policy establishment clutch their pearls, but it is exactly the Reagan-style peace-through-strength posture that the American people elected him to deliver. You do not negotiate with a regime that has spent nearly five decades sponsoring terrorism, funding proxy wars, and pursuing nuclear weapons. You break it.
Meanwhile, the broader consequences of the conflict are hitting home. Gas prices have surged since the campaign began, and Democrats are already trying to weaponize the pain at the pump against the administration. But Trump pushed back on that narrative too, noting that the United States is the world’s largest oil producer and stands to benefit economically from higher prices. More importantly, he argued, stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is worth any short-term cost. “Of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stopping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World,” he declared. “I won’t ever let that happen.”
Congressional Democrats, for their part, are doing what they do best — sniping from the sidelines without offering a coherent alternative. Representative Dan Goldman of New York claimed the administration doesn’t have an “objective” in Iran, which is a curious thing to say about a president who has been as explicit about his goals as any wartime commander in recent memory. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign over an airstrike that reportedly hit a school, because nothing says “serious foreign policy” like demanding your war secretary step down in the middle of an active military campaign. Are these people serious, or is this just performance art for the MSNBC green room?
The Pentagon is preparing a supplemental funding request to sustain the operation, signaling that this is not a weekend bombing run but a prolonged campaign to permanently degrade Iran’s military capacity. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was dramatically pulled from a live television interview on Thursday for an urgent briefing, later revealing that the U.S. Navy may begin escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz — a move that would further tighten the noose on whatever remains of Iran’s ability to project power in the region.
The establishment media and the Democratic Party want Americans to believe this is reckless. But the reckless thing would be to do what every administration since Carter has done — kick the Iran can down the road, impose sanctions that leak like a sieve, and pretend that diplomatic agreements with a theocratic regime that openly chants “Death to America” are worth the paper they’re printed on. Trump is calling that bluff with aircraft carriers and cruise missiles, and whether the Beltway class likes it or not, the 47th president appears determined to ensure that Iran’s 47-year reign of terror ends on his watch.
Providence watches over the bold.
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