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Posted on 05/02/2026 12:22:40 PM PDT by Jacquerie
On October 6, 1980 Donald Trump was interviewed by Rona Barrett, one of America’s most famous gossip columnists, on NBC. It was several weeks before Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the presidential election and near the end of the Iran hostage crisis in which the Iranian regime took 52 American diplomats and citizens prisoner after the embassy was stormed and then held them for 444 days.
It was a long and meandering interview about Trump’s story to date (he was then 34). About half way though, Barrett asked Trump if he could make America perfect how would he do it. Trump replied that America “should really be a country that gets the respect of other countries.” The exchange continued:
Donald Trump: ….The Iranian situation is a case in point. That they hold our hostages is just absolutely, and totally ridiculous. That this country sits back and allows a country such as Iran to hold our hostages, to my way of thinking, is a horror, and I don’t think they’d do it with other countries. I honestly don’t think they’d do it with other countries.
Rona Barrett: Obviously you’re advocating that we should have gone in there with troops, et cetera, and brought our boys out like Vietnam.
Donald Trump: I absolutely feel that, yes. I don’t think there’s any question, and there is no question in my mind. I think right now we’d be an oil-rich nation, and I believe that we should have done it, and I’m very disappointed that we didn’t do it, and I don’t think anybody would have held us in abeyance.
As historians Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman have observed, this interview is the first known comment by Trump on U.S. foreign policy.
[The rest of the Brookings article as expected is Barf level TDS]
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USA is a different place than it was in 1980. Just because Iran needs to be dealt with doesn’t mean yet another prolonged middle easy conflict post-Afganistan/Iraq 2026 is in order.
Same applies to tariffs to some degree, unfortunately the cards don’t fall into place the same way they would have decades ago.
And in 1980 Trump was more concerned about Japan than China because dynamics were different.
North Korea was something he spoke often about too. So he made it a focal point of his first administration to open dialogue.
middle east*
Anyone who pays attention to the threads you post will have noticed a strong anti-US/Israel/pro-Iran theme, whether it has to do with something supposedly Vatican and Catholic, or any other topic.
1980-Reagan won as a 69 year old. The country was not ready for him just 4 years earlier. Trump was 69 when he first took office. Something tells me these people late in life are more effective because they’re at an age when they have less patience with their naysayers and know they won’t be around long enough to care. Compare Reagan’s funeral to the others and you’ll see the difference.
It was Rush who said you’ll never see a book entitled “Great Moderates in History”.
I saw that interview. Country wasn’t ready for him either. Too brash and confident at too young an age. You don’t gamble under those conditions. That’s where you say wait your turn.
Anyone know how Vivek is doing?
The country was ready for Reagan in 1976, the GOP just barely kept him from winning the nomination against a sitting GOP president.
Well it’s more people like me voting than you. So get used to it.
<>USA is a different place than it was in 1980.<>
Wow. Can’t get anything by you.
<>Just because Iran needs to be dealt with doesn’t mean yet another prolonged middle easy conflict post-Afganistan/Iraq 2026 is in order.<>
It means Donald Trump is consistent; he saw early on what five subsequent Presidents refused to see or act upon. When someone or a country promises to kill you or our country, believe them and kill them back before they kill us.
Iran war ping.
More people voting like you in a strong anti-US/Israel/pro-Iran theme?
Let’s hope the opposition to Trump isn’t as strong as you hope.
Trump will ultimately answer to God, not us, for the men and women’s lives ages 18-30 he’s putting on the line and for the families who are already left to pick up the pieces after losing their loved ones. God knows the truth about Iran’s ‘nuclear’ capabilities and whether this timing was in keeping with His will and whether American motives were pure in His sight.
Every other US leader in the meantime will have to answer to their voters…who have their livelihoods to worry about in an already fragile economy.
Spare Freeperdom with your dishonest morality.
That’s the year I graduated High school, 46 years ago I can’t believe it.
“”””That’s the year I graduated High school, 46 years ago I can’t believe it.””””
I’ve read a lot of your posts, depending on the high school, I can believe it.
“Anti-Israel” does not equate to/belong with “anti-US”, and every time that is repeated in a desperate attempt to convince people, more and more Americans see it for what it is.
American patriots base case is neutrality towards the fate of foreigners and foreign countries. If they are good to us and good for us, we have friendly relations. If they’re not, we don’t.
People who have concluded that Israel is neither good to us nor good for us aren’t “anti-Israel” any more than they are “anti-Burkina Faso”.
Our allies in WW II - the British Empire and the Soviet Union - contributed massively to victory at enormous cost to themselves in blood and treasure.
What we call “allies” now - Taiwan, Ukraine, and Israel - are small weak states which serve the purpose of dragging us, or threatening to drag us, into foreign wars which do not serve our interests.
Getting away from those entanglements isn’t pro-China, pro-Russia, or pro-Iran. It’s pro-America.
Read my post, it about a particular individual and her views revealed on many threads, it has nothing to do with what you just posted.
Israel has been designated as a U.S. Major Non-NATO Ally under U.S. law.
This status provides foreign partners with certain benefits in the areas of defense trade and security cooperation and is a powerful symbol of their close relationship with the United States.
Consistent with statutory requirements, it is the policy of the United States to help Israel preserve its QME, or its ability to counter and defeat any credible conventional military threat from any individual state or possible coalition of states or from non-state actors, while sustaining minimal damages and casualties.
This requires a quadrennial report to Congress, for arms transfers that are required to be Congressionally notified, and a determination that individual arms transfers to the region will not adversely affect Israel’s QME.
https://2021-2025.state.gov/u-s-security-cooperation-with-israel/
Don't like it? Tough. Petition your Congressional reps.
How absurd.
The pendulum swings both ways. When you look at the corruption and Carter’s goody 2 shoes demeanor the country wanted a change. In 4 years Carter blew it with his incompetence. Clinton learned from it. He blew off his criticism with the media’s help while resting on Reagan’s economic laurels. It’s fair to say the democrats win when republican do not live up to what they stand for.
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