Trump has Iran on the ropes — and critics still don’t get his edge
As Iran’s rulers have to decide whether to sign a final agreement with the United States or face destruction, we’ve reached a moment of truth — not just for the war with Iran, but for understanding Donald Trump as president.
Not only has Trump emerged as the most courageous president in our lifetime, defying yet another assassination attempt this past weekend, but he’s also turned out to be the most successful wartime president since World War II.
He’s smashed Iran’s military — one of the biggest in the Middle East — in less than 40 days.
He forced Iran to agree to give up its enriched uranium and support for terrorist groups on April 16 — although hardline elements in the regime reneged on the deal. Now he’s using a naval blockade of Iranian ports to compel Tehran to accept final terms — or else.
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What makes Trump stand out as a wartime leader is that he sees the presidency, not with the eyes of a politician or a lawyer, like his predecessors, but as a founder-businessman.
The term founder refers to a special breed of entrepreneurs who have the drive and vision to create their own businesses and are willing to risk everything to achieve their goals. Founders create great companies like Ford, Apple and SpaceX, but also pose a massive threat to those who want to muddle along with the status quo.
Founder is an accurate description of Donald Trump, from his earliest days building a real estate empire in New York City and then becoming a casino mogul in Atlantic City, to his first and now second term as president.
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A founder president wants to solve problems like illegal immigration or our 47-year war with Iran, not just talk about them, and devotes all his drive and energy to making that happen.
That mindset is also what links him to our original Founding Fathers. They brought that same drive and energy to realize their vision of American independence 250 years ago and risked it all in a war with what was the greatest empire on Earth, Great Britain.
What makes a founder different from other people — especially typical politicians?
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First of all, founders are mission-driven and are ready to take bold action to deal with problems, as with Trump’s lightning strike against Iran’s nuclear program last June, and then his seizure of the opportunity to decapitate the most evil regime of our time in the final days of February.
Founders prefer to work with a small, dedicated and loyal team, as Trump has done with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his trusted team of negotiators — Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff and JD Vance.
Founders are risk-tolerant, sometimes notoriously so. Trump took a big chance that his military strikes on Iran might misfire and a bigger one when he committed all the military’s resources to rescue our two downed airmen — the most daring and miraculous air rescue in military history.
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Above all, founders are driven by an optimistic vision of the future. In the case of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, it was a vision of American independence that would create a new era of liberty and freedom for the world.
In Trump’s case, it’s a vision of a Middle East and world forever free from Iran’s terrorist and nuclear threat, but also of Israel at peace with its neighbors. It’s a vision that started with the Abraham Accords in Trump’s first term and now may lead to an Israeli peace agreement with Lebanon. It’s a vision he’s been willing to put his presidency on the line to realize.
At every step, critics have lashed out at Trump from resentment and fear, as they always do when founders insist on leading the way. The Founding Fathers, for example, faced opponents at the Constitutional Congress who argued passionately against independence until the last moment — and who believed we were entering a war with Britain we could only lose.
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Another wartime leader with founder instincts, Abraham Lincoln, was attacked as "King Lincoln" for daring to mobilize the United States for an all-out war with the Confederacy. His many Northern critics wanted him to lose his critical re-election in 1864 rather than let him press on for final victory and the abolition of slavery across America.
Likewise, the founder businessmen like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and James J. Hill, who made America the greatest economy in the world, were attacked as greedy "robber barons," as are Elon Musk and the other founders of the Magnificent 7 today.
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Yet, like them, Trump has defied the critics and naysayers — even would-be assassins — as he has pushed this war with Iran toward a decisive conclusion and raised the possibility that the world might be freed forever from Iran’s nuclear and terrorist blackmail.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said, "Ordinary leaders seek to manage the immediate; great ones attempt to raise their society to their visions."
Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) has blinded critics to what’s actually taking place. Because the founder mindset hasn’t just created the freest country on earth and built the great economy in the world, it is also able to bring victory and peace, thanks to a founder warrior named Donald Trump.