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Beyond the Iran Deal: Why Trump’s refusal to ‘kick the can’ just saved generations
By Van Hipp
Published March 04, 2026
The national security experts of the deep state called him "unqualified" when he sought the Presidency in 2016. They said he was reckless. Some 50 former GOP national security officials said he "would put at risk our country’s national security." And even one former Secretary of Defense called him "cavalier about the use of nuclear weapons."
Turns out they really didn’t know much about Donald Trump. They didn’t understand that he viewed keeping the American people safe as his top responsibility as commander-in-chief. And they didn’t grasp his commitment to ensure that the world’s number one sponsor of terrorism, a radical Islamist regime that had vowed "death to America," never acquired a nuclear weapon.
The free world has long been concerned about Iran’s nuclear program. And it’s their nuclear ambitions, when combined with the ever-increasing range of its ballistic missile capability, that poses the greatest threat. Over the years, steps have been undertaken to try and delay or slow down Iran’s nuclear efforts. The Stuxnet cyberattack in 2010 destroyed many spinning centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz facility. Experts believe this set Iran’s nuclear program back approximately 2 years. Regardless of these efforts though, Iran would always reconstitute and expand its nuclear program, thumbing its nose at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) along the way.
In 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or "Iran Deal," was negotiated with U.S. Government support, and the support of the vast majority of national security experts who opposed Trump’s candidacy in 2016. During the 2016 presidential campaign, then candidate Trump called it a "horrible, one-sided deal" because it did not address Iran’s ballistic missile program, and that it would allow Iran’s nuclear efforts to continue as restrictions are phased out. Fortunately, in 2018, President Trump, determined that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon, formally withdrew the U.S. from the Iran Deal.
To me, another non-starter for the Iran Deal was that Americans were not permitted on IAEA inspection teams. As President Obama’s National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, said at the time, "No Americans will be part of the IAEA team." This was ludicrous. The United States is the largest donor to the IAEA. American taxpayers provide over 25% of the IAEA’s budget. There should be an American on each IAEA inspection team.
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Iran has also exported its nuclear and ballistic missile know-how. It has been the chief enabler of North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Using open-source intelligence (OSINT), I first revealed to Fox News in 2012 that Iranian experts were at a North Korea missile launch. I further revealed that Iran and North Korea were both using the same miniaturized nuclear warhead design that can be traced back to the infamous Pakistani scientist, Dr. A.Q. Khan. On September 1, 2012, in Tehran, North Korea signed an agreement with Iran focused on scientific and technological cooperation. During the visit of the North Korean delegation to Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei announced that both countries must reach goals despite pressure and sanctions from others. Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported that after the agreement was signed, Iran stationed staff in North Korea to strengthen cooperation in missile and nuclear development.
We shouldn’t be surprised. As the Federation of American Scientists pointed out in the late 1980s, Iran has been in bed with North Korea since the early 1980s and helped fund North Korea’s missile development. When we look at Iran’s Shahab missile, we see it looks an awful lot like the North Korean Taepodong missile.
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Last year, on June 22, 2025, President Trump made the right decision with Operation Midnight Hammer to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. And he made the right decision with Operation Epic Fury, to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon, a day after the IAEA reported suspicious activity at Iran’s uranium enrichment sites that were bombed last June. As Senator Lindsey Graham aptly put it, "The mothership of terrorism is sinking. The captain is dead. The largest state sponsor of terrorism — Iran — is close to collapsing." Earlier intelligence had also revealed that Iran was rebuilding its ballistic missile program last fall after receiving several shipments of sodium perchlorate from China. Sodium perchlorate is the main precursor of the propellant for Iran’s ballistic missiles.
The elites who opposed President Trump from the start helped structure the Iran Deal which would have eventually allowed Iran to resume its nuclear ambitions. Prior administrations gave Iran a lifeline by transferring enormous sums of cash. President Trump, though, stuck with his gut that America, our children and our grandchildren, would not be safe with an Iran that possessed nuclear weapons, combined with long-range ballistic missile launch capability. He made the right decision for this, and future generations of Americans. And China and Russia are taking note that this President is different. The security of the American people is foremost with him, and he doesn’t kick the can down the road. The entire world is seeing what real American leadership looks like.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/beyond-iran-deal-why-trumps-refusal-kick-can-just-saved-generations