Congratulations to legendary lovebirds Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky: According to the Starr Report, today is the 30th anniversary of a very specific Oval Office interaction that, ahem, involved a cigar.
After all the torrid details became public record, President Clinton blamed his “indiscretions” on the turmoil and turnover from the government shutdown. (Because, obviously, the Lewinsky affair was all Newt Gingrich’s fault.)
Here we are, 30 years later — and this time, there’s a grownup in the White House. (Good thing too, because once again, there was a government shutdown.)
But instead of lighting up a cigar, President Donald Trump is lighting up Tehran.
As our World War II vets used to say, “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!” Whereas President Clinton was led by his libido, the current president is answering the siren’s call of history — and stands on the precipice of the greatest foreign policy victory since our World War II vets were killing Nazis.
From Hugh Hewitt (Fox News): Morning Glory: President Trump Is on the Cusp of a Historic Achievement
If President Donald Trump oversees the toppling of the ruling regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, his achievements will rank with the greatest of those of any post-World War II president. That’s just an objective fact. If you don’t understand that fact, you haven’t been paying attention for more than 40 years.
[…]
Iran is as evil a regime as exists on the planet and, given that it is run by religious fanatics with a peculiar theology rooted in end-times eschatology and “resistance” up to and especially including martyrdom, it is a uniquely dangerous regime. It cannot be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction or an arsenal of conventional weapons sufficient to deter normal regimes from stopping it from obtaining WMD, especially nuclear weapons.
Every president since George W. Bush has explicitly stated that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons for the reasons stated above. Whether all the presidents since W meant what they said, they all said it. President Trump said it, too, but he alone had the will to order the American military, in concert with our Israeli ally and now our Gulf allies, to demolish the Iranian nuclear weapons program as well as the forest of missiles built by the mullahs to protect that nuclear weapons program.
But as Hewitt noted, “The result needed in the war has not yet been achieved.”
Iran has been weakened; its leaders slaughtered; its hardware destroyed — yet its capacity for global mischief remains. Today, Iran is a wounded animal, attacking indiscriminately wherever it can, determined to teach the world a lesson: If you dare strike Iran, we will inflict such a dreadful toll on the world economy that the juice won’t be worth the squeeze.
Its war plan is to deter aggression via economic disruption. (Think of it as the Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine, but with money instead of nukes.) And if we halt the Iran War prematurely, the mullahs’ war plan won’t just be validated; it’ll become a pillar of Iranian foreign policy.
They’ll conclude that economic Armageddon is key to their survival.
Which means, Iran will double down on economic blackmail — while still pursuing nuclear blackmail. The mullahs will tax every single ship that passes through the Strait of Hormuz, using the ransom payments to rebuild their network of terrorist proxies, reconstitute their ballistic missiles, and realize their dream of nuclear weapons.
And once it does, Iran will be unstoppable. This is the endgame of the Iranian war plan.
Naturally, the Trump-haters on the left (and the isolationists on the right) believe the “real evil” is American/Israeli aggression. Proving the legitimacy of the horseshoe theory, the radical-left and isolationist-right have a shared endgame of their own: Dissuade future American/Israeli aggression by declaring the Iran War a disastrous miscalculation.
And the best way for them to do that is to cheerlead an outcome that leaves Iran stronger than before.
They need America to fail — and fail spectacularly. This has created an ongoing PR problem for President Trump because, until the war is over and U.S. goals are achieved, victory’s benefits are unrealized.
But the cost of the war, including inflation and the price of gasoline, is already here.
Therefore, the critics insist, the Iran War was a failure. After all, it’s been 32 whole days — and a grand total of 13 American fatalities. Enough is enough: Time for America to cut and run!
Fortunately, President Trump is wired differently from President Clinton. Whereas Slick Willy was a creature of triangulation, surviving by hugging the most popular items in his opponent’s platform, the current president cares more about winning than triangulating. And if President Trump is convinced he’s a month or two away from victory, come hell or high water, he’ll stay the course. There’s absolutely nothing Chuck Schumer, Tucker Carlson, Emmanuel Macron, or the New York Times can do to change his mind.
Trump didn’t triangulate on tariffs, immigration, crime, deportations, DEI, tax cuts, the border, NATO, or anything else — so he’s not going to suddenly triangulate with Iran. If you think otherwise, you don’t understand Trump’s psyche.
Instead, Trump will heed the advice Margaret Thatcher gave George H. W. Bush in the first Gulf War: “Don’t go wobbly.”
And that’s vital: Even in the best of times, the White House is a pressure-cooker. When pressure grows — whether from a government shutdown or a red-hot war — leaders make mistakes. Trump’s temperament is ideally suited for this moment.
The leaders of Iran? Not as much.
Channel 14 says it obtained an exchange among Iranian leaders:
President Pezeshkian: “I want to be involved in the negotiations with the U.S. Without a quick deal, our entire economy will collapse in 3 weeks.”
IRGC chief Vahidi: “That’s exactly why you can’t be involved. You’ll… pic.twitter.com/EV76ZmFa2w
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 30, 2026
Channel 14 says it obtained an exchange among Iranian leaders:
President [Masoud] Pezeshkian: “I want to be involved in the negotiations with the U.S. Without a quick deal, our entire economy will collapse in 3 weeks.”
IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] chief Vahidi: “That’s exactly why you can’t be involved. You’ll give up everything for a deal.”
After the call ended, the report says the Iranian president told his companions he feels like a ‘hostage’, “I’m unable to resign, I cannot make my own decisions, all I can do is read from a script I’m given”
Channel 14 concludes its report by saying that the IRGC is effectively running the country now.
It echoes an (unsubstantiated) X post from 13 days ago:
🔴 پزشكيان يتنصل من أي مسؤوليات ويقول إنه “بلا صلاحيات ومنقطع تماما عن الأطر القيادية ولا مبرر لاستهدافه”.
دولة خليجية – خاص
أكد مستشار سياسي في دولة خليجية أن الرئيس الإيراني مسعود پزشكيان أبلغ عددا من نظرائه في الخليج العربي ودول أخرى منها روسيا وتركيا أنه “في ظل انهيار… pic.twitter.com/g9W01v27Vm
— أنور مالك (@anwarmalek) March 18, 2026
Translation:
[Iranian President Masoud] Pezeshkian disclaims any responsibility and says that he has “no authority and is completely cut off from leadership structures and there is no justification for targeting him.”
Gulf State – Special
A political advisor in a Gulf state confirmed that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian informed a number of his counterparts in the Arab Gulf and other countries, including Russia and Turkey, that “in light of the collapse of the constitutional leadership structure in the country and his disconnection from its key elements, he disclaims responsibility and stresses that there is no justification for targeting him.”
Which means, while the horseshoe left/right are predicting doom and failure, Iran is already demonstrating all the classic signs of a regime on its last legs:
- Chaos, uncertainty, and divisions among its leaders.
- Factions battling to fill the power vacuum.
- Unresolvable disputes over whether to surrender or continue.
- Economic collapse.
- “Unofficial” coups behind closed doors.
Each day, Iran’s pain-points keep growing — and pressure mounts on the handful of “leaders” who haven’t been killed (yet). As the pressure builds, Iranian decision-making will be increasingly erratic.
Which will lead to more mistakes.
But on the American/Israeli side, victory is now within grasp. Unless we suddenly “go wobbly,” Iran is powerless to stop us.
And as Hewitt observed, we’re now on the precipice of the greatest foreign policy achievement since World War II.
It’s funny: Much has been written about the similarities between Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. Politico even wrote, “How Trump Is Just Like Bill Clinton.”
Because, superficially, they have much in common: They were both born in the summer of 1946. They’re about the same height. They were both impeached. They’re both two-term presidents. Socially, they ran in similar circles.
Fortunately, in key ways — including how well they manage pressure — the two men are dramatically different. Couldn’t be more different! And that bodes well for the Iran War.
You might even say they’re close… but no cigar.
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First: It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battlelines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
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