WASHINGTON — The regime in Tehran is running out of road, and President Donald J. Trump said so plainly on the South Lawn Tuesday. “Iran is a failed country,” the President told reporters before departing for Alaska. “They have no economy. They have 300% inflation. They have no money. They’re not paying their troops. They’re not paying anybody. We’ll make a decision on Iran very soon.”
He kept America’s enemies guessing on Yemen, too. Asked whether he has decided to strike the Houthis, the President said, “They’re behaving very badly,” then added, “If I told you I made a decision, that wouldn’t be good.” Asked whether he might ask Turkey to join the United States in Yemen, he said, “I might do it,” calling President Erdogan “a great friend of mine” whom he has a lot of respect for.
The leverage behind those words is floating in the Strait of Hormuz. On the U.S. Navy’s birthday, the President posted: “Happy Birthday to the United States Navy! It is now 251 years of Victories, Old and New. What they’ve done with the impenetrable Steel Wall (Sometimes referred to as the Blockade) in the Hormuz Strait is another Historic Achievement, one of many.”
That is peace through strength in real time: a broke regime, a blockade that holds, and a Commander in Chief who decides on his own timeline, not the press corps’. Watch Rapid Response 47’s video of the President on Iran.
