There was no political advantage to President Donald Trump in going to war with Iran. Wars are filled with risk, as was seen in this one when two U.S. pilots were shot down, necessitating a dramatic rescue. And polls have consistently shown that many Americans think the decision to go to war in Iran was a mistake.
But Trump did it anyway, because he understands that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and that he is the only president America has had with the intestinal fortitude to stop it. So, he has pressed ahead, doing what he believes is right for U.S. national security, political costs be damned. When asked if he was concerned about the economic — and by implication political — impact of the war, Trump answered: “Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran — they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
That is the very definition of statesmanship.
The political gamble has always been that when the U.S. military wins on the battlefield, public opinion will come the president’s way. But that gamble only pays off if Trump achieves a decisive victory. And right now, Trump is under lots of pressure to cut a deal with Iran that falls far short of the “unconditional surrender” he has demanded.
What would an acceptable deal look like? In 2004, the U.S. military landed in Libya, crated up the entire Libyan nuclear program — including its uranium hexafluoride, centrifuges and designs for building bombs — and loaded it all onto planes, which were flown to a secure storage facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The United States supervised the destruction of the regime’s ballistic missiles as well. If Iran allowed the U.S. to do the same with its nuclear program — with Trump at Oak Ridge to greet the arriving aircraft — Americans would see that as success.
But short of that, Democrats will say: Trump threw away a perfectly good nuclear deal that President Barack Obama negotiated with Iran, took the U.S. to war and ended up with … Obama’s nuclear deal. It won’t matter whether that’s true. Their message will resonate. And that would cost Republicans at the polls. Because the American people will endure paying higher gas prices for victory, but they won’t tolerate high gas prices for nothing.
Americans love winning. And Trump promised them that under his leadership, America would win so much it would get sick of winning. So, he needs to win in Iran.
He does not need a deal to do that. If Iran does not capitulate like Libya did, Trump needs to deliver on his promise to resume U.S. bombing “at a much higher level” than before the ceasefire. This does not require years of fighting. He paused the war at the 5-yard line, with about two weeks left to go before U.S. military commanders finished all the targets he gave them. He simply needs to get the ball into the end zone.
Here’s how: Direct U.S. Central Command to develop a plan to protect the energy infrastructure of America’s Persian Gulf allies, and warn Iran that if it targets that infrastructure, the U.S. will in turn destroy its energy infrastructure at Kharg Island. Resume combat operations with strikes to take out Iran’s recalcitrant leaders, destroy what remains of their weapons stockpiles and defense production capabilities, then announce the United States has achieved its military objectives and declare victory.
Once major combat is over, and Iran’s missile threat has been decimated, open the Strait of Hormuz — and hand it off to an international coalition. But keep the blockade on Iran in place, strangling the remnants of the regime economically, and order the CIA to launch a covert operation to arm and train the Iranian opposition, much as the U.S. armed and trained freedom fighters across the world during the Cold War.
As Trump has said, the Iranian people “have to have guns … . As soon as they have guns, they’ll fight … as good as anybody there is.” He is right. Eventually, the Iranian regime will fall like the Evil Empire before it — making Trump’s military achievements irreversible.
The war in Iran will not cost Republicans control of Congress — unless the United States loses. The GOP already had an uphill battle in the 2026 midterms. The party holding the White House almost always loses seats in midterm elections, and the GOP was trailing in the polls long before the Iran war began. But a failed end to the war would compound the party’s political problems, while a decisive military victory would give Trump momentum going into November.
History and public opinion reward success. No one would celebrate Abraham Lincoln today if the Civil War had ended in a stalemate. Lincoln is lionized as one of our nation’s greatest leaders because he succeeded in saving the Union. And Donald Trump will secure his place in history only if he succeeds in stopping Iran, decisively and irreversibly, from getting a nuclear weapon. A weak deal with the Iranian regime would do more than cost him the 2026 midterms; it would cost him the exalted place in history he so richly deserves.
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