Most Americans can feel it: the world is on edge. Things are moving fast, and actions carry real consequences. This is one of those moments when leadership matters — not flashy speeches or empty promises, but steady hands and clear judgment. That’s what people expect from a president, and it’s what President Donald Trump has shown he understands.
No president has a record for peace like the current one, and we the American people need to do one thing only: continue following the America First playbook the Trump administration has used over the last year and during the first administration.
This weekend, when an Iranian drone moved toward a U.S. warship and was shot down, it sent a simple message: America will defend its people. No panic. No overreaction. Just a firm response that kept our sailors safe and avoided a wider fight. That’s how strength is supposed to work — calm, confident, and clear, and always with the American people front and center.
It’s the same intent behind the decision to remove Qasem Soleimani — considered by some to have been only second to the Ayatollah — when an American contractor was killed in Iraq. And more recently, it is the intent behind the decision to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program when the issue emerged as an urgent threat.
It’s a different universe from the America Last approaches to Iran we’ve come to know — including the 2016 capture of two U.S. Navy boats by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Biden administration’s Pentagon strike on empty warehouses after Iran-backed militias launched dozens of attacks against U.S. troops.
Today we are back to America First. Today, it is only peace through strength.
Iran says it wants “fair” negotiations. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio clarified, meaningful diplomacy means addressing the range of Iran’s threats — from the nuclear and ballistic missile programs to its terror activities, to its repression of civilians. We are giving diplomacy a chance.
President Trump has shown that he understands this better than anyone. You don’t negotiate well by begging. You negotiate well by standing strong first. The many military assets the United States has moved into the region is part of the negotiating strategy. Give negotiations a chance, but don’t sit on your hands if they fall apart.
And the America First priority today is not fundamentally about who runs Iran, although that is a consequence. Rather it is stopping the longest war waged against the American people in our Republic’s young history by the world’s top global terror network.
That threat impacts American households not only because of the thousands of lives the Iranian regime has claimed, but because of the global nature of its reach. The Iranian regime has been the source of wars in the Middle East for half a century, just as it today is key to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and to propping up adversarial regimes in our neighborhood.
Ending its threats through decisive engagement will reap dividends for peace in the Middle East and far beyond it. And that will pave the way for the American people and our friends around the world to build prosperous futures together and create new opportunities for lasting peace in the Middle East and beyond.
Leadership means ending wars, and that requires bold and decisive engagement. It means following the peace through strength playbook that the Trump administration has innovated and deployed to make history, including the Abraham Accords during its first term.
Today, the world watches as the Trump administration makes history once again by unraveling the most complex and oldest threat network in our lifetimes.
How history will be rewritten, what actions will be taken in the days and weeks ahead, and what conditions will look like are all unknown. And the outcomes may take time. As the Secretary of State said with reference to actions in Venezuela, it’s not a microwave dinner.
What is known is the record that this president and his team bring to the table, and the playbook they use.
Being a president of the people means thinking beyond polls and politics. It means standing up for American security while remembering that freedom and dignity matter everywhere.
The world is watching. The Iranian people are watching. And whatever actions the President decides to take, we know it will be his America First playbook.
Coach Bruce Pearl serves as a senior fellow for the American Dream at the America First Policy Institute.
