Iran Won’t Give Up on Attacking Donald Trump

The Biden-Harris administration has also been weak in responding to Iranian proxy attacks on U.S. forces. Our organization, JINSA, has tracked 263 attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East since Biden became president—87 before Hamas‘s barbaric Oct. 7 attack on Israel and 176 since. The most recent came on Aug. 5, just days before news of the plotter’s arrest. The administration has meekly responded with just 17 rounds of airstrikes, usually against unmanned facilities with the only exception being when three U.S. troops were killed.

The story has been much the same in the Red Sea, where Iran’s Houthi proxy have effectively shut down commercial shipping and the United States has responded with sporadic strikes against low-value targets. Unsurprisingly, the Houthis continue launching missiles and drones at passing ships.

Nor has the administration, as Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) recently pointed out, taken any action to hold Iran responsible for the assassination plot and hack against Trump.

Tehran will only grow bolder and more reckless unless the United States takes action to reassert deterrence and change Iran’s calculus. It should start by directly punishing Iran for daring to plot against a U.S. president and other former senior U.S. officials.

Biden would demonstrate strong leadership by hitting back hard, inside Iran, against senior Iranian military personnel and/or hard military assets. His Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton, fired cruise missiles against Iraq’s Intelligence Services in 1993, after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein tried to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush in Kuwait. It wasn’t the model for a forceful retaliation, but at least it was direct.

A strong U.S. response, now at this crucial moment, would also do more to dissuade a major Iranian attack on Israel than current U.S. appeals for calm.

And this isn’t just about Iran. America’s Chinese, Russian, and North Korean adversaries are watching how we respond to brazen plots and attacks against America to determine what they can get away with.

For the sake of American lives, national security interests, and to prevent future conflict, the United States must send a strong message inside Iran.