The deal-cutting, principle-abandoning, America-last delirium that defined the Biden administration has somehow survived Trump’s 2024 victory. Donald Trump, the man sent to torch the swamp, may unravel the Reaganite clarity of his first term by substituting the doctrine of peace through strength with the Trojan horse of transactional politics.
Start with Iran, the starkest proof of transactional failure. Tehran’s mullahs are a heartbeat from a nuclear bomb. Yet, instead of a Reagan-style ultimatum, backed by an encroaching aircraft carrier and a stoic glare, we’re mired in the Obama/Biden methodology: the tired game of endless diplomatic Takiyya.
Iran’s remaining proxies, Hamas and the Houthis, do jihad’s bloody business across the Middle East, while we seemingly turn a blind eye. This isn’t strength; it’s voluntary capitulation. Trump’s base, the heart of America, sees through it. A recent Rasmussen poll shows 84% of the electorate sides with Trump on stopping Iran’s nuclear program. So why are we still negotiating with a regime that screams “Death to America” between threats of a bigger, badder, more efficient Jewish genocide than Hitler’s?
Then there’s the bizarre, reality-defying moral equivalency between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin. Zelensky, for all his obvious faults, is a man standing for his nation’s existence against a Russian onslaught. Valodya hasn’t “gone crazy.” Valodya is as he has always been, a deliberate butcher, his hands stained with the blood of Ukraine and Russia’s fallen men, women, and children.
The clearest case of transactional politicking is America’s ongoing revival of Hamas through its Faustian bargain with the duplicitous Qatar. This is the kind of 4D-chess drivel Trump was elected to obliterate. Since October 7, 2023, the U.S. has wavered between supporting Israel’s right to survive and pushing Qatari-brokered ceasefires that let Hamas rearm. Qatar is the grinning, sycophantic, public-facing front of the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar funds Hamas, spews anti-American indoctrination through Al Jazeera, and has spent decades bankrolling radical Marxist and jihadi ideologies in our universities. Efforts to combat antisemitism at the university level will remain hollow unless we sever ties with Qatar.
Tucker Carlson may be preening in Doha like a useful idiot—just as he did in Moscow—but he and the loud, Israel-blaming minority on the right do not speak for him the vast majority of Trump voters. Americans didn’t send Trump to Washington to play diplomat with tyrants. They sent him to name evil and break it—to be Reagan’s heir, not Biden’s shadow.
An encouraging sign that there may still be a flicker of Reaganite fire smoldering in Trump’s gut is that Ukraine’s recent drone strike, which lit up Russia’s aircraft fleet, likely took place with Washington’s prior knowledge, or, at the very least, has received no condemnation. Trump must continue acting to ensure the line between heroes and monsters remains clear.
With the clarity and courage of Liberation Day, Trump must sever all family entanglements with Qatar, no matter how financially disadvantageous. Qatar should be sanctioned and isolated. Without access to the global financial system, they’re neutered. And finally, the president must take steps to move the U.S. military base from Qatar to Bahrain. This would be a clear rebuke to Qatar’s insidious double-dealing. It would signal that America’s principles aren’t for sale.
The world is watching. History is unforgiving. President Donald Trump must reclaim the vision of peace through strength, or risk becoming another name etched on the West’s gravestone.
Image generated by AI.