President Donald Trump weighed in Monday on the ongoing controversy over whether the U.S. bombing of the Islamic Republic of Iran was necessary at all, as well as consistent with his America-First principles.
Asked about the elusive Mojtaba Khamenei, who may the new supreme leader or may be dead, or any number of things in between, Trump said that he had been known to give talks centering on the “Death to America” slogan. Then the president explained why it was necessary to strike Iran:
When they say “Death to America,” you should believe them, ‘cause that’s what they would have — if they had a nuclear weapon, they would've used it, but they never had the chance. I never gave them the chance to use it.
And other presidents should have done — I spoke to one of the former presidents, who I actually like. I actually speak to some. I do like some people — it’d be shocking. And he said, “I wish I did what you did.” Couldn’t have done it. Other presidents, somebody should have done it. 47 years this went on.
They call Iran “the bully of the Middle East.” And you could have never had the Abraham Accords, you could never have had peace in the Middle East, now you’re gonna have peace. You could never do it with a dark cloud of a nuclear Iran. But Iran is a shell of itself, it’s no longer a bully, it’s the one that gets bullied, it's the bully that got beat up. We beat the crap out of them — and they deserve that.
Trump was right: “Death to America” is for the rulers of the Islamic Republic much more than a mean-spirited chant. In a nationally televised address in Nov. 2023, the last supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, explained: "The situation between America and Iran is this: When you chant 'Death to America!' it is not just a slogan – it is a policy.”
This was a policy that the Islamic Republic pursued in all manner of ways. Back in Nov. 2024, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operative, Farhad Shakeri, was indicted for plotting to kill Trump. Other Iranian death-to-America activities have included funding a far-left political party in Spain and cozying up to Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, with an eye toward gaining a North American foothold it could eventually use to strike at the United States.
As The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran details, these actions and many others like them took place against the backdrop of a steady torrent of bellicose rhetoric against the U.S. On Feb. 11, 2014, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, Iranian Chief of Staff Hassan Firouzabadi boasted: “Iran is prepared for the decisive war against the U.S. and the Zionist regime…. Iran has been making plans, conducting maneuvers, and preparing its forces for this battle for years now.”
In May 2014, senior Iranian commander Massoud Jazayeri warned that if the U.S. attacked Iran, not only would the result be “the annihilation of the Israeli regime,” but war in the U.S. itself: “[The Americans] know that aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran would mean annihilation of Tel Aviv and spread of war into the United States.”
Related: The Islamic Republic of Iran Chooses a New Leader, But He May Not Be the One in Charge
Fadavi added: “Today the Americans and the entire world know that one of our operational goals is destroying U.S. Navy Forces.” In May 2015, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Hossein Salami actually said that Iran wanted war with the United States: “We have prepared ourselves for the most dangerous scenarios and this is no big deal and is simple to digest for U.S.; we welcome war with the U.S. as we do believe that it will be the scene for our success to display the real potentials of our power.”’
Salami got his war, and was killed in it during the Israeli airstrikes in June 2025. The Iranian Islamic regime, however, never reconsidered or even moderated its stance. Left alone, it would continue to pursue its global adventurism in pursuit of the ultimate destruction of the U.S., as well as Israel. If a Democrat is elected president in 2028 and the Islamic Republic is still in power in Tehran, President Newsom or President Ocasio-Cortez or President Buttigieg (God help us) is likely to send the billions flowing to the mullahs yet again, as did Barack Obama and Old Joe Biden. And the Islamic regime top dogs will use those billions, as they did before, to fund their war against the free world.
President Trump has called a halt. And he’s right: what is being done now should have been done years ago.
