The Persian Mirror: Why Donald Trump has always hated Iran
In 1980,
Donald Trump
was a 34-year-old real estate loudmouth with a penchant for gold-plated phone calls and third-person self-references. The Iran hostage crisis was America's humiliation du jour, and Trump wasn't yet in politics, but he was already boiling with resentment.
When gossip queen Rona Barrett casually asked him how he'd 'make America perfect,' he didn't mention jobs, healthcare, or schools. He went straight for Tehran. 'That they hold our hostages is just absolutely, and totally ridiculous,' he fumed. 'I absolutely feel we should have gone in there with troops.'
That was it. The ur-text of Trump's foreign policy worldview. Iran wasn't just a rogue state—it was a middle finger aimed directly at America's masculinity, and by extension, his own.
That feeling—of being mocked, of being played—never left him. And now, as the Middle East stands on the edge of a war that could go nuclear, that grudge is finally dictating global events.
Interview: Donald Trump with Rona Barrett - October 6, 1980
2025: Trump Is President Again, and the Ghost of 1979 Has Returned
This past week, Israel struck dozens of Iranian targets, including two suspected centrifuge manufacturing sites near Tehran. The attacks came after Iran allegedly supplied drones and missile parts to Hezbollah and the Houthis, and following a failed cyber-attack on Israel's nuclear infrastructure.
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The retaliation was swift. Iran claimed it had launched hypersonic missiles—marking the first time such weapons were used in the region's history.
The death toll has crossed 400. Civilians, not just nuclear scientists, are being buried. The world is on fire.
And then Trump entered the chat.
Amid the G7 summit in Calgary, President Trump abruptly departed before dessert, citing 'urgent security matters' in the Middle East.
The real reason, according to senior officials, was to review contingency plans for a potential strike on Iran's Fordo nuclear facility—one of the most fortified sites in the region. Among the options under discussion: deployment of the GBU-57 bunker-buster, a 13,600-kg ordnance designed to penetrate 60 metres of reinforced rock.
Hours later, Trump took to Truth Social with a stark warning: 'Evacuate Tehran. Or don't.
I won't warn you again.' He added, with characteristic menace, 'Khamenei is an easy target… but not for now.'
This wasn't foreign policy. It was revenge theatre. And the Ayatollah was now cast as the season finale.
Khamenei Strikes Back: We Will Show the Zionists No Mercy
For six days after the Israeli strikes, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remained silent. No speeches. No statements. Just funeral processions for the IRGC dead. And then came his post on X: 'We must give a strong response to the terrorist Zionist regime.
We will show the Zionists no mercy.' He then warned the United States of 'irreparable damage' if it joined the conflict. Iran's state TV announced the military was on 'maximum readiness.
' Proxies in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon were activated. Iranian hackers reportedly took down water utilities in Tel Aviv suburbs for 20 minutes—enough to make headlines and sow chaos.
Khamenei has lost nearly half his inner circle in the last two months—IRGC spymaster Mohammad Kazemi, missile chief Amir Hajizadeh, even commander Hossein Salami.
It's no longer just retaliation. It's survival. And Trump is treating it like a mob feud.
Soleimani: The Assassination That Set the Tone
To understand how Trump processes Iran, rewind to 2020. The drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani wasn't a military necessity. It was a statement. The Pentagon had offered Trump three response options. He picked the most extreme. It wasn't just about Iran. It was about dominance. He didn't brief Congress. He didn't wait for allies.
He wanted the world to see America press the button and walk away.
After Soleimani, the calculus changed. Trump's supporters chanted 'USA!' as if they'd just won a football match. Iran's missile retaliation targeted US bases in Iraq but carefully avoided fatalities. It was a dance of power—one Trump believed he'd won. He'd not just avenged a general's actions; he had erased what he believed was a generational slight.
Now, in 2025, the logic is the same—only grander, meaner, and more desperate.
MASH-UP: Trump's al-Baghdadi Speech & Obama's Bin Laden Speech
Tucker Carlson
vs Trump: The War That Broke MAGA
Trump's bunker-buster threats haven't just terrified Iran—they've fractured MAGA unity. Tucker Carlson called the escalation 'reckless,' saying Trump was being 'led around by Bibi's leash.' Marjorie Taylor Greene posted, 'WE DON'T WANT WAR FOR ISRAEL' in full caps. JD Vance, a top contender for VP, warned of 'Vietnam with nukes.'
But Trump doesn't blink.
Because Iran isn't a nation in his worldview. It's a symbol. Of weakness. Of being laughed at. Of 1979. And Trump is not running for reelection anymore. He has nothing left to lose—except face.
So, when Iran enriches uranium, Trump doesn't see a threat. He sees defiance. When Khamenei speaks, Trump hears a taunt. And when Israel bombs Tehran, Trump sees an opportunity to finally finish the fight Carter never could.
Trump's Iran Obsession Is Not Strategy. It's Psychology.
There's no consistent logic to Trump's Iran doctrine because it's not doctrine.
It's emotion, layered with cinema. Iran isn't a geopolitical adversary in the Trump mind palace—it's a recurring villain in a Scorsese remake where Trump is both the Don and the director.
This explains why he oscillates so wildly. In 2019, he threatened to obliterate 52 Iranian cultural sites. Days later, he tried to call Rouhani via Macron. Trump doesn't want diplomacy or war. He wants leverage. He wants to stand over the rubble and say, You should've respected me.
This is not foreign policy. It's ego therapy with a kill-switch.
Fordo, Fantasy, and the Endgame
The Fordo nuclear site, buried deep under Iran's mountains near Qom, has long been the red line for Israel and the US. Until now, no military planner has seriously proposed a direct strike—it's too risky, too escalatory, too 2003. But Trump has never been bound by those conventions. According to Pentagon leaks, he has asked whether 'a single clean strike' on Fordo could 'crush their nuclear program and teach them a lesson.
' He reportedly told aides, 'This ends with them kneeling. Or burning.'
In Trump's world, it doesn't matter whether Iran is six weeks or six months from a bomb. The point is that they might be. And that, to Trump, is a direct challenge to his manhood, his memory, and his myth.
Final Thought: Trump Isn't Bombing Iran. He's Bombing a Memory.
Donald Trump's first foreign policy thought was about Iran. Forty-five years later, his last one might be too.
This isn't about uranium, or deterrence, or saving Israel. It's about vindication. About erasing a scar that was burned into his perception of American weakness during the Carter years. And in his mind, the only way to erase a humiliation is through annihilation.
He's not trying to contain Iran. He's trying to rewrite 1979 with 2025's arsenal.
Because this was never really about Iran.
It was always about him.
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