The practice of Donald Trump's singular power often fueled the trial in inconstancy. His handling of the Iranian dossier in recent weeks has fueled criticism of the contradictions between his assumed will to withdraw the United States from the Middle East and the risk of being trapped in an uncontrollable spiral of responses and reprisals.
The versatile president, capable of threatening North Korea with destruction in less than a year and then praising its leader, Kim Jong-un, has demonstrated undeniable continuity in Iran. He methodically prepared the withdrawal of the United States from the Iranian nuclear agreement, concluded by his democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, in 2015, before implementing a ruthless policy of "Maximum pressure".
The latter is intended to bring the Iranian economy to its knees and force the regime to accept an American diktat: even more severe constraints on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic program and a drastic reduction in Iran’s regional influence. Tehran won this mainly due to decisions by the United States, from the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to non-intervention in Syria ten years later.
1980 interview
Donald Trump's loyalty to simple ideas was often illustrated in a campaign advertisement dating from 1987 when he was thinking for the first time of a presidential candidacy. It contains themes that the businessman, who became president, keeps coming back to, including "Disrespect for the United States" testified by many countries, including on behalf of Washington officials, who abuse his protection and his supposed generosity.
Following historians Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman, authors of a book on the origins of the President's worldview, Thomas Wright, director of the United States – Europe program at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, exhumed another piece of Trump's vision for Iran in a stimulating article published on January 7. It is taken from an interview, granted on October 6, 1980, by a then flamboyant 34-year-old young real estate developer, not to an international relations specialist, but to a queen of worldly gossip, Rona Barrett, who officiated on the NBC channel.
