Trump’s Bold Leadership – Safer World

What we just saw – similar to what we saw in Donald Trump’s first, second, and comeback runs for the presidency – is a quintessentially American quality: bold leadership. Taking out major parts of Iran’s nuclear weapon program was bold, and it makes us safer.

Bold leadership is listening hard and deciding for yourself, thinking strategically and being tactically nimble, doing what others do not expect, would not do, yet must be done, because it is the right thing to do. Trump just did that in Iran, dramatically reducing a threat that loomed for decades.

History and facts are worth reviewing. In 1979, Islamic radicals brought down Iran’s Shah, a Western ally. They killed 5,000 dissidents in cold blood, took the U.S. embassy, held U.S. hostages for 444 days, until Ronald Reagan threatened bold leadership. They then quickly released the hostages.

Reagan’s words meant something, so America’s did. In 1987 and 1988, as Iran continued killing, at war with Sunni Iraq, they challenged Reagan, mined the Arabian Gulf, and shot missiles at oil tankers.

Reagan warned, “Keep your silkworms in the can,” or else. They tested him. He sank their armed oil platforms and half their navy. A Navy friend, a destroyer captain in the mix, said that act was decisive.

In that moment, the press – led by caustic Sam Donaldson – yelled to Reagan on the South Lawn, “Are we now at war with Iran?” Reagan looked over his shoulder. “They would not be that stupid.”

They were not that stupid. They pulled in their horns, ended the eight-year war with Iraq, quietly returned to terrorist activities, a pastime that has become their full-time occupation.

They up-funded Hezbollah and Hamas, pushed terror across the Middle East and into the West with the vigor of Mexican drug cartels pushing heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, and illegals north.

Iran used oil money over the next three decades to fund Gaza terrorists, including Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and created a special operations group to push the Islamic Revolutionary terror abroad, called the “Quds Force.”

That was not enough. They ramped up the “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” (IRGC) to terrorize Iran’s population, mowing down protestors by the thousands, holding executions, and torturing critics.

Taking a page from the Soviets, they sent IRGC operatives on assassination teams to Argentina, Albania, Denmark, France, India, Kenya, Thailand, Great Britain, and the United States.

Sanctions were tried (1980), tried again (1995 and later), but never convinced Iran that its behavior should be amended. They preferred to have their people suffer material deprivation, than respect the law.

Between 2012 and 2020, they reveled in terror hits and became the world’s top sponsor of terror, giving Assad in Syria $16 billion – and began ramping up their quest for a nuclear weapon.

The United States, Israel, and the United Nations, over all four decades, saw Iran enriching uranium.

Pakistan and China helped Iran’s nuclear plans, if only to give heartburn to the United States, Europe, and Israel. “My enemy’s enemy is my friend” was afoot.

In August 2002, Iran began boasting of their nuclear enrichment, spreading fear. So-called confidence-building measures, treaties, and UN resolutions did nothing; they looked like appeasement.

Program acceleration picked up in 2021, Iran making a beeline for nuclear weapons under Biden, increasing their enrichment, facilities deep in the earth, going from 20 percent enrichment to 60 percent, just weeks from nuclear bomb-making materials. They perfected delivery systems.

Then came October 7, 2023, a horrific terror attack on Israel – fully funded by Iran. The Iranian radicals pushed too far. Israel moved on Hamas in Gaza, destroyed the group’s expansive underground terror infrastructure, turned – with US help – to defend against other surrogates.

In April and October 2024, and again in early June 2025, Iran directly attacked Israel with hundreds of missiles and drones. Israel’s anti-missile “Iron Dome” and “David’s Sling” protected the nation.

Israel was incensed, launched a major attack on Iran, its first ever – to destroy nuclear facilities. Several targets were up to 300 meters below the surface, unable to be destroyed by Israel, which is where Trump and America stepped in.

Trump authorized a half dozen GBU-57 “bunker buster” bombs, able to penetrate 60 meters, to be dropped on Iran’s nuclear enrichment and weapons-making facilities. B-2s flew these 30,000-pound bombs from Missouri to Iran, refueling repeatedly, and severely impaired Iran’s program.

While this is not over, no president since the start of Iran’s program has dared do what President Trump did, and he did it decisively. His bold leadership has delivered a safer world for everyone.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).