Proceed with caution, Khamenei: A recent Rasmussen poll on Iran found that three-quarters of Trump voters support strikes to destroy Iran's nuclear program. Poll those who strongly approve of Trump and the figure climbs to 84 percent. For those on the isolationist right, the figures landed as a bombshell. They shouldn't have, according to the Hudson Institute's Mike Watson, who argues that the mullahs in Tehran—and those who downplay their might in the U.S.—"have run into a major force in American politics, one that Khamenei should fear: America's Jacksonians."
"Since they prefer to ignore foreigners who they do not consider a threat, they can appear quite dovish," writes Watson. "They are not at all dovish about terrorism though, or about major terrorism sponsors like Iran. Since Iranian revolutionaries attacked the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 and took 52 Americans hostage for more than a year, Jacksonians have loathed the mullahs. Iran’s intervening decades of supporting worldwide terrorism—killing Americans and systematically cheating on agreements—have not engendered any new warm feelings. Jacksonians do not want Iran to get the bomb, and the economic incentives that the Iranians are dangling do not change their minds."
"The heartland is often clearer eyed about threats to the American people than the talking heads who claim to speak on its behalf," continues Watson. "Trump said the two ways to deal with Iran’s enrichment program are to ‘blow them up nicely or blow them up viciously.’ If the mullahs choose to have it done viciously, plenty of Americans will be happy to oblige."
READ MORE: Tehran Awakens a Jacksonian Giant
Thank you, Joe: Joe Biden's legacy is in major need of a boost—and it got a significant one this week, our Andrew Stiles writes, "as Democrats and journalists finally acknowledged what most normal Americans already knew: Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, one of the most celebrated DEI hires in recent memory, was 'kinda dumb' and terrible at her job."
The pile-on suggests that the left is finally aligning with the "solid majority of Americans who oppose affirmative action and other DEI-related nonsense. Perhaps they have finally realized that obsessing over diversity is a great way to ensure that the likes of Jean Pierre … and other hyper-ambitious idiots end up with jobs that they aren't any good at but can't be fired from without inciting the grievance mob."
The development means Biden "may ultimately be viewed as someone who, however inadvertently, helped usher in a Golden Age of American Greatness," Stiles argues. "By elevating Jean-Pierre and other incompetent grifters to positions of authority, Biden compelled his former aides and other Democrats to reckon with that incompetence. The floodgates are open. They are no longer afraid to speak out and admit (implicitly, for now) that they were wrong. It's not unreasonable to argue that when all is said and done, Joe Biden will have done more than any public figure to dismantle the DEI-industrial complex that enabled Jean-Pierre's improbable rise."
READ MORE: Democrats Killed #MeToo for Joe Biden, Is DEI Next?
A new wrinkle in nuke talks: Earlier this week, Iranian leaders lashed out at the Trump administration's proposal for a revamped nuclear deal over its uranium enrichment terms. On Friday, it was fresh sanctions that made temperatures rise in Tehran.
Shortly after the Treasury Department slapped sanctions on an Iranian money laundering network, Iran's state-controlled Mehr News Agency responded with frustration. "Despite earlier Iranian authorities' warnings that the sanctions show that Washington is not serious in the talks to resolve Western states' alleged concerns over the Iranian nuclear issue in exchange for the removal of sanctions," it wrote, "the US Treasury announced new sanctions on dozens of Iranian individuals and entities."
"The U.S. announced the measures just days after Iran rejected the Trump administration’s offer for a revamped nuclear deal that would have eventually zeroed-out its uranium enrichment capabilities," writes our Adam Kredo. "Tehran labeled the deal a non-starter, with the country’s supreme leader saying that President Donald Trump 'can not do a damn thing' about Iran’s contested enrichment program."
READ MORE: Iran Lashes Out at Trump Admin's New Sanctions: 'Washington Is Not Serious' About Nuclear Talks
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