Hiroshima, Iran, and the Fall of Tulsi Gabbard

President Trump is not a complicated man. The 47th President has a high IQ, strong backbone, and impressive wealth of knowledge. Still, Trump values certain traits above all others. The two most important traits the President has consistently held above all others since ascending to power in 2016 are strength and loyalty. Trump stood by Supreme Court Justice Brett Cavanaugh through his difficult confirmation even as the left tried to hammer him with unsubstantiated tales of sexual assault because the former federal circuit court judge showed strength. Similarly, Trump made sure to bring back Peter Navarro for his second term after the trusted advisor was even willing to go to jail to defy a subpoena from the pathetic January sixth committee. The President dislikes nothing more than signs of weakness or disloyalty.

The relationship between Tulsi Gabbard and MAGA was always one based more on opposition to the establishment than any real agreement on the major issues. Even though the former Congresswoman and Iraqi veteran agreed with the core tenets of Trump’s peace through strong foreign policy, Gabbard is still a progressive who has supported candidates such as Bernie Sanders in the past and does not agree with many of the President’s movement’s strongest positions. Trump appointed the former Hawaii congresswoman to the position of national intelligence director in part because this is not a decision-making position, since obviously putting a progressive in a position to craft policy within his administration did not make sense. The two biggest lessons the President learned from his successful term were the need to have strong individuals and loyal people who share his vision in positions of power. Trump did not get along with Tillerson or Kelly in his first term, since they didn’t share his philosophy, and Sessions showed himself to be weak when the former Attorney General recused himself during the disgusting Russia investigation. The President obviously wants strong and capable leaders in his administration, and he’s very comfortable with differing opinions, but he wants people who share his values and view of the world, as is expected.

Tulsi Gabbard committed two of the biggest mistakes a person can make in Trump’s eyes over the last month, and her second act is likely going to be unforgivable. While the President won’t likely remove the National Intelligence Director in the middle of the crises, Gabbard is on borrowed time now. The first mistake the former Congresswomen from Hawaii made was tweeting out what was essentially an apology for the U.S.’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima during World War Two. Gabbard posted an official tweet that clearly implied the United States was morally wrong to use the bomb to end the war after visiting Japan, and multiple credible reports suggest her post did not go over well with the administration.

Still, Gabbard has been a strong and loyal supporter of Trump and MAGA for a while, the progressive former Congresswomen likely could have survived this clear misstep if not for her next more serious mistakes. Gabbard’s bigger faux pas came when she publicly contradicted the President by suggesting that US intelligence reports do not show Iran is close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, a statement at odds with what Trump and the Israeli government have recently stated. Gabbard did not in any way even state she would defer to the President or even say that the intelligence was not conclusive, she made statements that implied that what Trump was saying publicly was aligned with her opinion on Iran’s nuclear program.

Gabbard’s recent words which publicly contradict what Trump has been saying project weakness, and her statement on this issue will likely be unforgivable for the President. Trump would not lie, and while what Gabbard is saying obviously reflects the opinion of some in US intelligence, the President has access to more information than her, and he obviously has a different view of where the current state of Iran’s nuclear program is at. While Trump enjoys having strong personalities with different viewpoints around him, for Gabbard to publicly contradict the President, particularly at such a critical time, projects the kind of weakness that will not likely be forgotten by him.

President Trump is not an ideologue, and he sees a clear opportunity here to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program without having to put boots on the ground or likely engage in any wider military actions. The 47th President has always been a pragmatist and a problem solver, and he sees a window here to help make the Middle East safer both now and into the future. Bush’s policy of regime change clearly failed, and Biden’s decision not to enforce the sanctions against Iran enabled the country’s vile regime to finance terrorist groups and destabilize the region. Obama’s Iran deal was a disgrace as well, with recent reports suggesting the rogue nation had no intention of ever even living up to the terms of that weak agreement. Trump’s more practical peace through-strength approach has worked better than those of his predecessors, both Republican and Democrats, and the President is on the verge of what looks to be accomplishing what previous administrations failed to do for 20 years, destroying Iran’s nuclear program without putting a single US troop on the ground. While Gabbard is not a bad person, her more rigid philosophy of not supporting foreign intervention was never truly aligned with the foreign policy of the President, and her comments publicly contradicting Trump’s assessment of the Iran nuclear program will likely be the end for her in this administration.