Trump Triumphalism Will Not Allow Him To Sit On The Sidelines In The Israeli-Iran War

Trump Triumphalism Will Not Allow Him To Sit On The Sidelines In The Israeli-Iran War

By

Leonard Zwelling

(Composed on June 19, 2025—Honestly!)

The op-ed pages of all the newspapers are filled with advice for the Trump Administration with regard to its involvement in the war between Israel and Iran. There is even a war between conservatives. Should Trump be bellicose against Iran or stay out of foreign entanglements as he had pledged he would do? Even if we did bomb Iran, what happens next?

Surely, the United States is providing Israel with a host of defensive technologies, but, putatively, no offensive capabilities–yet. Despite the Iron Dome and other defensive weapons, this time missiles from Iran have gotten through to Israeli civilian targets including a large hospital in the south.

The stated purpose of the Israeli offensive is to eliminate the threat posed by an Iran with a nuclear weapon given Iran’s pledge to eliminate Israel. A nuclear weapon would give Iran the ability to do just that. Iran with a nuclear weapon would also be a threat to the United States, to Saudi Arabia, and to the other Sunni states of the Gulf. An Iran with a nuclear weapon would cause a clamor for nuclear capabilities throughout the Gulf. It would be the most destabilizing event in a region with a long history of destabilizing events.

The problem is that Israel alone cannot end Iran’s drive for a nuclear weapon. The Iranian technology for development of nuclear weapons is buried in a mountain called Fordow, and may be 300 feet below the surface. Only the American 30,000- pound bunker busting bomb can take it out. Will President Trump elect to do just that?

So far, it appears that Israel is winning this war. The Israelis have control of the air space over Tehran. They have assassinated a host of Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists. Many Iranian civilians have died and the population of Tehran is fleeing the city. The Supreme Leader of Iran is Ayatollah Ali Khanenei. His life has thus far been spared by the Israelis, supposedly because President Trump asked the Israelis not to kill him–yet.

Now if the Iranian nuclear threat is really to be eradicated and the same fate is to befall the Ayatollah, do you think President Trump wants Israel to get all the credit? Will the Iranians ever admit to having been defeated by the Zionists anyway?

Nah!

My guess is by the time I post this, having written it on June 19, the Iranian nuclear program will be no more and neither will the Ayatollah unless President Trump goes for the theatrical and asserts his muscle on July 4.

I also do not believe that American troops will need to be on the ground in Iran. There are a lot of smart, capable people in Iran and many Iranians with equal gifts outside the country who might be willing to come back and build a new, free Iran. This must happen if Iran is to join other nations in peace.

So, my guess is that Trump will drop the big bomb. Trump will kill the Ayatollah. Trump will help assemble a group to lead the new Iran. And Trump, not Netanyahu, will get all the credit.

That’s my bet. What’s yours?

Can Trump get a Nobel Prize for killing all of those people. Why not? Obama got one for doing nothing.