Just a couple of weeks after President Donald Trump announced in December 2017 that he would move the US Embassy in Israel to the capital city of Jerusalem, I had the occasion to be in the White House.
My daughter was working as White House press secretary at the time, and I was there to see her. When the President found out I was there, he asked me to come see him in the Oval Office. That is an invitation one never says “no” to!
While he reminded me how much better my daughter was than I (something he continues to say to me and for which he is correct), I thanked him for making the historic announcement that he would be doing something other presidents, Democrat and Republican, had promised but had never done.
I then asked him why he did it, when it was well known that every world leader on every continent urged him not to, and that most everyone in government and in the State Department urged him to take the same waiver that other presidents had taken.
I will never forget his answer: Simple. Direct. Very “Trump.”
“Because I said I would, and it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
With that single and profound response, I saw true leadership. Bold leadership. No hand-wringing or second-guessing himself about the decision. Promise made. Promise kept.
When President Trump announced that US B-2 bombers carrying the 30,000-pound MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) “bunker buster” bomb were being used, I felt certain that had I been in the White House Situation Room and asked him why, he would have said again, “Because I said I would, and it’s the RIGHT thing to do!”
Promise Made. Promise Kept.
Trump’s straightforward leadership style
Throughout his first term and now into his second, I have marveled at President Trump’s straightforward leadership style. He has unflinchingly said, “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
Last Saturday night, he delivered on that promise as American pilots flew a B-2 Stealth bomber on a 37-hour mission to deliver what he called an “obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald J. Trump share a bond of friendship, but more importantly, a common recognition that a nuclear weapon in the hands of the radical government of Iran is as reckless as a bottle of whiskey and the keys to a Porsche are in the hands of a 16-year-old boy!
When Israel launched its campaign to put an end to Iran’s nuclear aspirations on June 13, it was because the Iranians were racing to develop something that even the Europeans recognized as a threat not only to Israel but to the free world.
Israel’s flawless, precision military operation is one that will be studied in war colleges across the world for decades. But while they had courage, discipline, and a fearless dedication to the mission, they lacked the bunker-busting bombs to finish off some of Iran’s deep underground facilities.
America had the assets. But the world waited to see what, if anything, America would do.
They found out. President Trump announced that we had just completed a global mission that complemented the relentless Israeli efforts, and “just like that,” the end to the conflict and the start of a ceasefire was in place.
Like many others living in Israel, including some 700,000 Americans, we slept for an entire night for the first time in almost two weeks, not rousted from slumber by the piercing sounds of sirens or the booms of Iranian ballistic missiles flying in with the intention of fulfilling an Iranian promise to “wipe Israel off the face of the earth.”
They failed in THEIR promise. President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu succeeded in fulfilling THEIR promise that Iran would never have a nuclear bomb.
Israel and America, and their two unflappable leaders, delivered more than a good night’s sleep to the people living in Israel. They delivered the gift of a humbled Iran to the world and celebrated in the capitals of every sane nation on earth.
And they launched something bigger than destructive bombs. They launched what will be a realignment of the Middle East. And I can clearly hear the words of my president if asked why he did what he did.
“Because I said I would, and it was the right thing to do!”