Trump’s Careful, America First Approach to Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program Trump’s MAGA base trusts his judgment—even if stopping Iran’s nuclear threat means a one-time strike, not a new war. By Fred Fleitz
he mainstream media has been in overdrive this week, claiming that President Trump’s MAGA base is prepared to revolt if the president decides to drop bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow uranium enrichment site because this would violate his America First principles to keep America out of new and unnecessary wars.
President Trump answered these criticisms decisively when he told The Atlantic staff writer Michael Scherer that, since he originated the America First concept, he alone decides what it means. Trump also told the reporter that stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon aligns with America First principles:
“For those people who say they want peace—you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon—that’s not peace.”
Trump’s statement did not come as a surprise to those of us who have studied his America First approach to U.S. national security and why this groundbreaking approach to foreign affairs was so successful during Trump’s first term. (Full disclosure: I edited a book on this topic published in May 2024 titled An America First Approach to U.S. National Security.)
There is no question that the America First approach repudiates the failed foreign policies of prior Republican and Democratic presidents who embroiled our nation in endless wars and doomed nation-building efforts in areas of the world where there were no U.S. strategic interests. This approach is also a backlash to efforts by Democratic presidents to enmesh America in globalist trade agreements and treaties that were favored by the liberal elite but harmed U.S. security and the American worker.
This led to Trump’s America First approach to U.S. national security. A primary requirement of this approach is a competent and decisive president who exercises strong leadership, appoints exemplary national security officials, and implements a coherent and effective foreign policy to protect America from foreign threats and promote its interests abroad. The America First approach requires a strong military, the prudent use of U.S. military force, and keeping U.S. troops out of unnecessary and unending wars.
The America First approach is not America alone. It means working in alliances and with partners to promote regional security while requiring alliance members and allies to carry their full weight in defending security in their regions.
Criticism of President Trump that he would betray the America First approach to U.S. national security by dropping bunker buster bombs to destroy Iran’s Fordow nuclear site is misplaced because it misinterprets a key principle of this approach: that trying to keep America out of new and unnecessary wars does not mean the president will never use military force and will never go to war.
Moreover, the America First approach is not isolationism or pacifism. Under this approach, the president will prudently and carefully employ U.S. military force when it is in the strategic interest of the United States and only when non-military options have been exhausted.
Understandably, many of President Trump’s MAGA supporters are nervous that America bombing Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility could drag our country into a new, endless war with Iran.
This is why the primary requirement of this approach is a competent and decisive president who exercises strong leadership and names exemplary national security officials.
As president, Donald Trump must make a difficult decision on this issue. Although he wants to avoid using military force against Iran, is the threat from its nuclear program so severe that he has to do so?
This call is complicated because there is so much disinformation about Iran’s nuclear weapons program, including intelligence analysis of this program that has been heavily politicized since 2007. (Click HERE for my April 2025 American Greatness article on this issue.) President Trump indicated this week that this disinformation has not fooled him and recognizes that Iran is “very close” to having a nuclear bomb.
Taking all these factors into account, President Trump has taken a careful and principled approach to Iran’s nuclear weapons program. He is sticking to his long-held position that Iran cannot get a nuclear bomb, as well as his strong preference to resolve global security threats like this through diplomacy. Trump offered Iran 60 days to reach a deal and made a generous offer to help it develop a peaceful nuclear program, as well as economic benefits, if Tehran abandoned its nuclear weapons effort, including its uranium enrichment program.
Iran dragged its feet in talks with the U.S. and refused to give up its uranium enrichment program. The 60-day deadline for an agreement expired. Netanyahu, who postponed an Israeli attack on Iran earlier this year at Trump’s request to give diplomacy a chance, did not want to delay an attack any further because Iran’s nuclear weapons program had accelerated. For example, as of February 2025, Iran had enriched enough uranium to fuel one nuclear weapon in less than a week and 14 in about four months.
This left Trump with some tough decisions to make—would he go along with an Israeli attack on Iran, and would the U.S. bomb a key Iranian nuclear site that Israel could not destroy?
These are difficult decisions for a president who has been outspoken about how America has wasted huge amounts of blood and treasure on endless wars in the Middle East. But presidents are elected to make such decisions. Presidents must also adapt their policies and assumptions as facts and circumstances change.
I don’t know what President Trump will decide, but I believe it is possible he will order the underground Fordow enrichment facility to be destroyed by several of the U.S. Air Force’s largest bunker-buster bombs, the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). This is a decision Trump may make because of the grave threat he has assessed from an Iranian nuclear weapon to Israel and the United States. No U.S. troops would be deployed on the ground in Iran, and this would be a one-time airstrike.
At the same time, the president has made it clear that the door remains open to diplomacy. We learned this yesterday during a White House press conference when White House Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said:
“I have a message directly from the president—based on the possibility of substantial negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision on whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”
In a June 17 tweet, Vice President JD Vance, who has long been strongly opposed to the U.S. getting involved in new and unnecessary wars, explained why he trusts President Trump to make the right decision on the threat from Iran’s nuclear weapons program, even if this means bombing Iran’s Fordow facility, when he wrote:
“Meanwhile, the president has shown remarkable restraint in keeping our military’s focus on protecting our troops and protecting our citizens.
He may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment. That decision ultimately belongs to the president. And of course, people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy.
But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue. And having seen this up close and personal, I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people’s goals. Whatever he does, that is his focus.”
I believe most Americans and most of the MAGA movement will share this view. They trust President Trump to make the right decision on a difficult national security problem. They know the president is determined to resolve the security threats from Iran through diplomacy if possible. And most of President Trump’s supporters understand that although Trump is adamant about keeping America out of new wars, he will use military force against U.S. enemies when he judges that it is in our country’s national interest.
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