Trump: 'I Was the Hunted, Now I'm the Hunter'

hotair.com

Donald Trump is in his element. 

He is a competitor. He is an Alpha Male. And he is relentless. For more than a decade, he has made it clear that Iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon--he said so the day he announced his candidacy and has reiterated that ever since--and he has never been afraid to kick Iran where it hurts. 

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During his second campaign, Iran sent assassins into the United States to take Trump out, just as it has targeted other US politicians unsuccessfully. Now that the tables are turned, Trump is reveling in the irony. 

When Israel's strikes on Iran began, Trump indicated that the US would not directly attack Iran unless the Islamic Republic struck first. He seems to be revising that intention, and keeps hinting that the United States may participate in the bombing. 

He is now speaking of "we" instead of merely Israel. That could mean as little as taking credit for our indirect aid to Israel, or as much as indicating that we will soon be participating in the war. 

Israel has cleared the way and now has supremacy in the conflict, although Iran still has a limited ability to strike back with a rapidly diminishing number of ballistic missiles. And the few launchers Iran has, the more incentive there is for Trump to make limited strikes within Iran. If Iran cannot turn its missiles on American bases in the region, the only thing holding Trump back would be a desire to avoid the optics of getting involved. 

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But those optics, at least domestically, would not be bad for him. Despite the fact that there are some Trump supporters who are disappointed or even enraged by Trump's support for Israel, this truly is an 80-20 issue with the public. Americans don't like long wars, but quick, surgical strikes that successfully get the job done are very popular. 

Americans love victory, and there is no person on Earth more addicted to winning than Donald Trump. If he can score a victory and claim credit with little to no risk, he will almost certainly take the opportunity. Because of that, I think it is more likely than not that Trump will send in the B-2s and call it a day. 

The big question is whether Iran can unleash sleeper cells in the United States. That is the last card they can play. How many cells are there? How much damage can they do? It's impossible to say. 

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Still, as the Iranian regime totters, their incentive to hold back their trump card diminishes rapidly. Unleashing terrorists in America will not save them, of course, but doing so could make Trump pay a political price. 

Of course, Khamenei would ensure his own demise by doing so. No country would take him in should he do so. Russia has already abandoned Iran, and China would balk. Turkey would be his last refuge, but even Erdogan would recoil from providing refuge for an enemy of his NATO ally. 

Trump is hard to predict, but I would place a bet on a surgical strike in the coming days.