Staff Reports
President Donald Trump has once again taken the reins on foreign policy by reinstating his “maximum pressure” strategy on Iran, a move that many conservatives likely see as a long-overdue return to sanity. With a swift stroke of the pen, Trump issued an executive order that promises to keep the financial lifeblood from flowing into the coffers of the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. It seems the Biden administration’s sorrowful appeasement dance has finally met its match.
The “maximum pressure” policy is not just about sanctions, but also part of a larger foreign initiative that includes withdrawing from various UN agencies, showing that Trump’s approach is about taking a stand on multiple fronts. The U.S. Treasury Department is now tasked with ensuring that Tehran’s wallet remains firmly shut. After all, when a regime spends close to $1 billion annually on terrorism—funding groups like Hamas and Hezbollah—it’s time to pull out the wallet chain and let them know the gravy train is over.
Under Trump’s first presidency, the Iranian regime was already feeling the heat thanks to severe sanctions that curtailed its malign activities across the Middle East. The decision to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization and the elimination of the man behind its proxy operations, Qasem Soleimani, sent a clear message. If Iran thought it could run rampant with its terror agenda, they were mistaken—just look at the vacuum left in Hezbollah’s activities post-Soleimani.
Iran, however, doesn’t take such actions lightly and has resorted to prosecuting Trump and several of his former advisors for their “crimes.” A fantastical $50 billion in damages is what a Tehran court has mandated Trump and his crew must pay, while Trump and others visibly ignore the ruling like they’d ignore a scam email from a Nigerian prince. Even more ludicrous are calls from certain Iranian figures for Trump’s assassination. The audacity of staging a crowd-sourced assassination fund at Soleimani’s funeral makes one wonder if their grasp on reality is as firm as their grip on power.
Trump Restores ‘Maximum Pressure‘ Policy to Keep Iran from Possessing Nukes https://t.co/VFNqK3lJKN
— Trump2024_no_matter_what (@TexasTrump2024) February 5, 2025
While Trump kept a sharp eye on Iran’s threats during the signing ceremony—warning that any attempt on his life would lead to Iran’s obliteration—Biden seemed unable to learn the lesson. Under his guidance, Iran was given the keys to the kingdom with lifted sanctions and access to previously frozen assets. His administration’s feeble attempts at staving off terrorism by showering Iran with cash have only emboldened Tehran, a fact made painfully clear by Hamas’ atrocities on October 7, 2023. After that horrific day, the celebrations in Iran were a telling display of allegiance to the terror groups it funds.
Perhaps Trump’s humorous yet serious warning to Iran serves not just as a reality check but as an invitation for them to reconsider their existence as a terror haven. The renewed “maximum pressure” policy signals to Iran that the Trump administration is revving its engines once again. In the world of international relations, it seems the infamous phrase “fool me once, shame on you” has never been more applicable, and conservatives may be gearing up for round two of holding Iran accountable.
