Trump didn’t view Iran strike like typical politician — and it worked | Opinion
President Donald Trump’s decision to strike at Iran’s nuclear weapons program is a turning point in world history. It was a tough decision, but it was the right one. And the reason action was taken is because we have a business leader running America. Trump is a CEO president.
In business, a leader operates differently than a lawyer or a politician. The No. 1 objective at all times is the future of the company. A CEO is constantly reviewing data to identify market threats to the company and what can be done about them.
In contrast, a political leader worries about getting elected and how popular his decisions are. As a result, a CEO president brings a totally different mindset to the Oval Office.
In this case, Trump saw that the future of his company — America — was threatened by Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. Indeed, in looking back at his first campaign for president in 2016, it’s fascinating to see how much he criticized the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. That was the “deal” that President Barack Obama negotiated with Iran to curtail its nuclear ambitions.
For a politician, the deal might look fine. However, to a CEO, it looks like a giveaway. In exchange for $1.3 billion in cash, the Iranians promised to allow inspections. In 2016, Trump blasted the JCPOA and noted that Obama negotiated it as an agreement, not a treaty, because the Senate, which must ratify treaties, would never confirm such a give away.
The biggest problem with the Iran deal, as Trump noted at the time, was that it merely delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Some of the major inspections would expire in 10-15 years, meaning the Iranians could simply return to building a nuclear weapon. Again, for a politician, a 10-year break on uranium enrichment is a win; for a CEO, it just slows down the inevitable. Trump could never live this deal and rightly withdrew the United States from it in 2018.
Under Biden, Iran’s nuclear-weapon pursuit continued
During the Biden administration, evidence emerged that the Iranians were enriching uranium at levels much higher than needed for nuclear energy purposes. Indeed, many of us in Congress believe they had never stopped pursuing a nuclear weapon from the moment they signed the deal and took the money.
When Trump returned to the presidency in January 2025, acting again as a CEO would, he carefully laid out a series of options that could end the conflict. He sent his emissary, Steve Witkoff, to negotiate directly with the Iranians. He announced a 60-day timeframe for a new deal to be negotiated. And he publicly said that he didn’t want war in the Middle East.
But like a great CEO, he kept an ace in the hole: He simultaneously instructed the Pentagon to begin planning an attack on the three main nuclear sites in Iran. If negotiations failed, he wanted to be ready to protect the bottom line of his country.
And so, our commander in chief came to a decision point as a businessman, not a politician. A politician would have simply signed another deal and declared victory. The politics of that decision would be higher poll numbers and a stronger position as president. And that would have been enough for a politician.
But not for Trump. As a CEO, he understood that a new deal with Iran might sound good, but it wouldn’t accomplish enough for the country. For the sake of America, he had to take out the Iranians’ nuclear program. And thank God he did.
This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 5:25 AM.