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The Normal President
Tablet ^ | 13 Jun, 2025 | Lee Smith

Posted on 06/15/2025 4:09:12 AM PDT by MtnClimber

By quarterbacking Israel’s attack on Iran, Trump brought an end to a particularly demoralizing era in U.S. history.

The main reason Israel’s massive attack on Iranian leadership, nuclear facilities, and other targets came as a surprise is that no one believes American presidents when they talk about protecting Americans and advancing our interests—especially when they’re talking about the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Ever since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, U.S. presidents have wanted an accommodation with Iran—not revenge for holding 52 Americans captive for 444 days, but comity. Ronald Reagan told Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, but when the Iranians’ Lebanese ally Hezbollah killed 17 Americans at the U.S. embassy in Beirut and 241 at the Marine barracks in 1983, he flinched. Bill Clinton wanted a deal with Iran so badly, he helped hide the Iranians’ sponsorship of the group that killed 19 airmen at Khobar Towers in 1996. George W. Bush turned a blind eye to Tehran’s depredations as Shia militias backed by Iran killed hundreds of U.S. troops in Iraq, while Iran’s Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad chartered buses to transport Sunni fighters from the Damascus airport to the Iraqi border, where they joined the hunt for Americans. Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy initiative was the Iran nuclear deal—designed not, as he promised, to stop Tehran’s nuclear weapons program, but to legalize it and protect it under the umbrella of an international agreement, backed by the United States.

That all changed with Donald Trump. At last, an American president kept his word. He was very clear about it even before his second term started: Iran can’t have a bomb. Trump wanted it to go peacefully, but he warned that if the Iranians didn’t agree to dismantle their program entirely, they’d be bombed. Maybe Israel would do it, maybe the United States, maybe both, but in any case, they’d be bombed. Trump gave them 60 days to decide, and on day 61, Israel unleashed Operation Rising Lion.

Until this morning, when Trump posted on Truth Social to take credit for the raid, there was some confusion about the administration’s involvement. As the operation began, Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a statement claiming that it was solely an Israeli show without any American participation. But even if details about intelligence sharing and other aspects of Israeli-U.S. coordination were hazy, the statement was obviously misleading: The entire operation was keyed to Trump. Without him, the attack wouldn’t have happened as it did, or maybe not at all.

Trump spent two months neutralizing the Iranians without them realizing he was drawing them into the briar patch. Iranian diplomats pride themselves on their negotiating skills. Generations of U.S. diplomats have marveled at the Iranians’ ability to wipe the floor with them: It’s a cultural thing—ever try to bargain with a carpet merchant in Tehran? And Trump also praised them repeatedly for their talents—very good negotiators! The Iranians were in their sweet spot and must have imagined they could negotiate until Trump gave in to their demands or left office. But Trump was the trickster. He tied them down for two months, time that he gave to the Israelis to make sure they had everything in order.

There’s already lots of talk about Trump’s deception campaign, and in the days and weeks to come, we’ll have more insight into which statements were real and which were faked and which journalists were used, without them knowing it, to print fake news to ensure the operation’s success. One Tablet colleague says it’s the most impressive operational feint since the Normandy invasion. Maybe even more impressive. A few weeks ago, a colleague told me of a brief conversation with a very senior Israeli official who said that Jerusalem and Washington see eye to eye on Gaza and left it at that. As my colleague saw it, and was meant to see it, this was not good news insofar as it suggested a big gap between the two powers on Iran. The deception campaign was so tight, it meant misleading friends casually.

It’s now clear that the insanely dense communications environment—including foreign actors like the Iranians themselves, anti-Bibi Israeli journalists, the Gulf states, and the Europeans—served the purpose of the deception campaign. But most significant was the domestic component. Did the Iranians believe reports that the pro-Israel camp was losing influence with Trump and that the “restraintists” were on the rise? Did Iran lobbyist Trita Parsi tell officials in Tehran that his colleagues from the Quincy Institute and other Koch-funded policy experts who were working in the administration had it in the bag? Don’t worry about the neocons—my guys are steering things in a good way. It seems that, like the Iranians, the Koch network got caught in its own echo chamber.


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: trump
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1 posted on 06/15/2025 4:09:12 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

It seems that President Trump has learned who not to trust.


2 posted on 06/15/2025 4:09:23 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber
"Trump gave them 60 days to decide, and on day 61, Israel unleashed Operation Rising Lion."

60 days doesn't mean "at some point in the future", it means 60 days, dammit.

3 posted on 06/15/2025 4:17:55 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again" - J. Hendrix)
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To: MtnClimber

“It seems that President Trump has learned who not to trust.”

It also seems that when he says something he means it.

Quite refreshing, actually.

L


4 posted on 06/15/2025 4:26:48 AM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: MtnClimber

Neither Israel nor Iran should have the bomb, the world has said no more nuclear proliferation but vaccilates on it when convenient.

Israel denies having them but refuses inspections and won’t join the NPT, yet says they have to bomb Iran to stop them from getting a nuke, when all along the overwhelming evidence is Israel has them.

The political left and right has reported over the years they have them, and most likely Iran also wants them but has tried the slow walk route to achieving nuclear potential.

Secondly, there is video all over X about the lies from Netanyahu since the early 90’s about how Iran is so very close to getting the bomb, it doesn’t occur, then he repeats it again a few years later, it doesn’t occur, and this talk went on throughout the 90’s, 2000’s, all the way to now, and given the sketchy inspections of Iran, little to no repeated bombings of facilities there, combined with very little sabotage of Iranian efforts (as reported by the medua) we can see Netanyahu has largely been fearmongering - same thing he did with Iraq.

Lastly, there’s this:

Media coverage of the war in Ukraine from 2022 through 2023 is almost exactly the same now: tactics that were used and occured then are occurring now:

Propaganda put out by Ukraine came with excuses for why it’s okay to put out propaganda:

There was the propaganda of the Ghost of Kyiv, that Snake Island soldiers didn’t surrender when it turned out later they did, men going off to war shown hugging their girlfriends was supposedly in real time when it was clips from a movie years earlier, children saluting the men on the tank in Ukraine didnt happen, Zelensky wearing military garb was supposedly out in the field after Russia attacked when it was from 2 years earlier, etc, etc.

Lots of reports from MSM of what the bombing in Iran has supposedly done is going on now with less on that and how successful the bombing has been in Israel and. (As in 2022-23, one has to go to X, Global South media (ftom Central and South America, India, major news outlets in Subsaharan Africa, South East Asian newspapers, as most translate to English, or to YouTube, and blogs) to get information about what is occurring in Israel now as the MSM only reports half? of the news at best.

Point is, hypersonic missiles are hitting Israel, Haifa has been hit pretty hard, lots of pictures and videos on X of people in bunkers and tunnels in Israel, and more. Reports on X are Iran has hit residential areas and no doubt this occured, but the media largely won’t report that one media outlet (shown on X) says the hits on a place where top commanders in Iran were said to have been were said to have cone with civilian casualties and were in residential areas.

Point is, the MSM could tell us about everything concerning Iran they know and everythimg concerning Israel they know but they don’t, I doubt they try, yet Americans deserve to know.

Once again there’s reports of how the people in Iran are rising up just like they said they were rising up against Putin.

If you didn’t support Zelensky or Putin back then you were somehow going to enable Putin to roll over all of Europe and now we can see he can barely take 1/4 of Ukraine.

Netanyahu has given the world lots of Propaganda for decades about WMD’s in Iraq, along with Iran, Syria, etc.

People in 2022 justified pro-Ukraine propaganda by saying it was for a good cause. Guess what? The political left says the same thing and the political right whines when they are duped by propaganda from the left or even if not, just because the left put out the propaganda. So... the route to take is to ferret out the propaganda from the left and follow Jesus’ Golden Rule and not do what the left, globalists, and neocons do (which is to put out propsgabda) because they are the ones who supported the interventionism in Syria, Libya, Iraq, etc, etc, plus they support what Lindsey Graham and John Bolton support.

Trump has backtracked on deportations, backtracked on hotel and leisure jobs not going to “migrants” says he has no problem with hundreds of thousands of Chinese students coming in.

Trump should not give any help whatsoever to this war and stay out of it as MAGA is tired of 2 wars under Bush, 5 new ones under Obama, 2 under Biden, with some of it being minor involvement but still enough is enough. Regardless, MAGA is tired of it.

The following from Matt Walsh is being said by Tucker Carlson, Rand Paul, Rep. Thomas Massie, and many others, which is zero involvement in this war:

Matt Walsh:

“Israel is its own country and perfectly capable of taking care of itself. We do not need to be involved in this and should not be. Our country is under invasion. Our cities are besieged by crime and dysfunction. Those are the problems we should be focused on fixing. Our people need to be protected and prioritized by the leaders we’ve elected. America first. Always”

https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1933636866458177665


5 posted on 06/15/2025 4:35:43 AM PDT by Its All Over Except ...
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To: MtnClimber

More so with North Korea.


6 posted on 06/15/2025 4:40:17 AM PDT by nikos1121
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To: MtnClimber

Dorkbama, the Muslim eunuch quota president, was a walking, talking turd. Always was. Always will be. He is a shining example of symbolism over substance.


7 posted on 06/15/2025 4:58:54 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: Its All Over Except ...

The point is, Iran has been at war with the United States for 45 years. They have openly, repeatedly stated their desire to destroy the United States “the Great Satan” and Israel “the lesser Satan” for 45 years.

Iran should have been neutralized decades ago. When a country says they want to destroy you and acts as if they do, take them at their word.


8 posted on 06/15/2025 4:59:50 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: MtnClimber

President Trump didn’t “quarterback” the attacks - he just allowed Israel to do what she needs to do - he gave Iran 60 days to come to the table and on day 61, after vociferous threats against Israel and America, Israel decided to act.
But - I would like to think we helped supply some of the intelligence so Israeli could take out some of Iran’s top mangy dogs....


9 posted on 06/15/2025 5:00:06 AM PDT by trebb (So many fools - so little time...)
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To: Its All Over Except ...
Neither Israel nor Iran should have the bomb, the world has said no more nuclear proliferation. . .

Okay, I just read that whole essay, and while I admire its reach and historical perspective, I still don't understand what the point is, other than a dislike of Israel.

I can't tell if you would agree or disagree, but as one who has been watching Arab Moslems' behavior on the world stage since 1967--and also heard my (gentile) father's tales from the 1950s and before--it is clear to me that the militant Moslem states always have a knife under their shirts, no matter what the weather, and they are always seeking the next opportunity for a day of surprise mass-murder of Jews and Christians anywhere in the world.

As others have observed: "Islam is a war plan."

And nothing else.

10 posted on 06/15/2025 5:17:38 AM PDT by SamuraiScot
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To: MtnClimber

The neocons finally got their was with Iran.


11 posted on 06/15/2025 5:40:11 AM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2025... RETURN OF THE JEDI….)
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To: Its All Over Except ...

MAGA is dead, killed by the Left, Neocons and Netanyahu


12 posted on 06/15/2025 5:49:38 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: hardspunned

How’s our least favorite Trump Hater this morning?

Crow for breakfast?

Again?

Loser.


13 posted on 06/15/2025 7:03:06 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 62, Hadith 88: Mohammed consummated the marriage when she was 9 and he was 54)
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To: Its All Over Except ...

I’m quite happy Israel has the bomb.

If anyone threatens their existence, which is about an annual event, they hold the Trump card.

NEVER AGAIN!!!


14 posted on 06/15/2025 7:04:55 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 62, Hadith 88: Mohammed consummated the marriage when she was 9 and he was 54)
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To: DesertRhino

Suck it.


15 posted on 06/15/2025 7:07:03 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 62, Hadith 88: Mohammed consummated the marriage when she was 9 and he was 54)
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To: PGR88

Suck it, loser.


16 posted on 06/15/2025 7:07:24 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 62, Hadith 88: Mohammed consummated the marriage when she was 9 and he was 54)
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To: DesertRhino

Yeah, where? I don’t notice US troops fighting anywhere this morning. Trump has always said that other nations should under their problems as they see fit, and not involve us directly…which is what is happening right now between Israel and Iran. Why are you upset about (other than perhaps Israel actually winning a conflict)?


17 posted on 06/15/2025 7:17:01 AM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." The Weapons Shops of Isher)
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To: Ancesthntr; DesertRhino
Yeah, where? I don’t notice US troops fighting anywhere this morning. Trump has always said that other nations should under their problems as they see fit, and not involve us directly…which is what is happening right now between Israel and Iran

Back in 2003, Ariel Sharon arrogantly demanded (in almost these exact words), "after you're done with Iraq, send troops to invade Iran and Syria". The correct reaction to a foreign head of state trying to dictate US policy was "eff you, Ariel, go do your own fighting."

Fast forward 22 years, and as far as I can tell Israel is in fact doing its own fighting, and there's no sign of the US military being drawn into the conflict. So no, the neocons didn't get what they wanted, which was a US invasion of Iran for the purpose of regime change.

18 posted on 06/15/2025 8:01:07 AM PDT by ek_hornbeck
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To: MtnClimber

President Trump says what he is going to do, and does what he says.


19 posted on 06/15/2025 8:26:57 AM PDT by CIB-173RDABN (I’ll take a wait and see...)
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To: PGR88; MtnClimber; BroJoeK; PIF; adorno; All

“MAGA is dead, killed by the Left, Neocons and Netanyahu”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

MAGA is far from dead — it’s evolving, sharpening, and shedding the Kremlin-tainted illusions pushed by useful idiots and foreign propagandists. The Left, the neocons, and yes, Netanyahu didn’t kill MAGA — but Russian disinfo nearly hijacked it. That ends now.

Let’s be clear: the idea that MAGA ever stood for some utopian, pacifist, anti-war agenda is a myth. A dangerous one — born not from grassroots conservatism but from Moscow’s playbook. Tucker Carlson, once a voice for reason, veered into that fog when he parroted Kremlin narratives and recently accused Trump — of being a neocon by being “complicit” in Israel’s smart move against Iran.

Donald Trump stood with Israel not because he’s a warmonger, but because he understands the timeless conservative doctrine of PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH. And real MAGA — not the diluted version hijacked by isolationists or foreign-aligned pundits — gets this. Iran’s regime, radicalized and blood-soaked, is a threat to the West, to America, to civilization itself. Neutrality in the face of jihad is not strength. It’s surrender.

The soul of MAGA has never been about retreat. It’s about choosing our battles wisely, backing our allies when necessary, and crushing our enemies when justified. Real interventionism — not endless wars, but strategic action with clear goals — is not a betrayal of MAGA. It is MAGA!

So no — MAGA isn’t dead. But the Kremlin’s grip on a minority of its confused followers? That needs to be buried once and for all.


20 posted on 06/15/2025 8:28:08 AM PDT by USA-FRANCE (Silence against evil isn't neutrality, it's complicity. Oppose the Iran-Russia-North Korea Alliance!)
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