Life is getting uncomfortable if you’re an illegal alien and a criminal currently hiding out in the United States. That’s President Trump keeping a campaign promise. On Tuesday, he took the first step in keeping another: making life uncomfortable for the mullahs currently leading Iran, the world’s number-one state sponsor of Islamic terrorism.
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This first step involves an executive order requiring the Treasury Department to take a bite out of Iran’s finances in what the president has dubbed a “maximum pressure campaign.”
President Donald Trump unveiled an executive order reinstating a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran on Tuesday, coinciding with a visit from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.
Trump voiced that he was “torn” on signing the order and admitted he was “unhappy to do it,” noting that that the executive order was very tough on Iran.
“Hopefully, we’re not going to have to use it very much,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.
The order instructs the Treasury Department to execute “maximum economic pressure” upon Iran through a series of sanctions aimed at sinking Iran’s oil exports.
Putting pressure on Iran is a good thing to do, every day and twice on Sunday. The mullahs running that country as as toxic a group of people as you’re likely to find. The younger people of that country have been growing restive, and there may be an opportunity here for some serious economic sanctions to prompt some changes in Iran — like the ouster of the Bronze Age barbarians currently in charge.
President Trump isn’t alone in this effort — and it’s a bipartisan effort.
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Lawmakers are also interested in exerting more pressure on Iran. For example, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John Fetterman, D-Penn., along with lawmakers in the House, introduced a resolution on Thursday that affirms that all options should remain on the table in dealing with Iran’s nuclear threat.
Graham said in a statement Thursday that should Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, it would prove “one of the most destabilizing and dangerous events in world history.”
Additionally, Graham said ahead of Netanyahu’s visit that the moment is right to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat now, and that the U.S. should back Israel if it chooses to “decimate” Iran’s nuclear program.
Let’s hope they reduce Iran’s nuclear program by a lot more than 10 percent (that’s me being pedantic, but still), but Senator Graham is right about that; Iran shouldn’t be allowed to become a nuclear power.
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Here’s the thing, though: Iran doesn’t have to build their own nuclear weapons. Does anyone doubt that North Korea, under the leadership of that stunted little gargoyle with bad hair from a long line of stunted little gargoyles with bad hair who is running that country, would hesitate to sell a nuke to the mullahs? The mullahs want to be a nuclear power. North Korea badly needs currency — and oil. It seems like something to watch out for, and the Coast Guard would do well to look hard at any anonymous old tramp freighters sailing into, say, New York harbor in the middle of the night.
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President Trump appears to see one thing clearly: The Middle East will never be stable as long as the current regime in Iran is in place. Economic sanctions are a way for the United States to make things very uncomfortable for the mullahs without putting any American service members in harm’s way. It’s the right place to start — and so far, two weeks into what is promising to be a historic second term, President Trump is racking up a pretty serious record of wins.
