RUTHFULLY YOURS

Let’s not beat around the bush: as a speechwriter at the highest levels of politics and business for 45 years – including the most successful presidential campaign in history – this commentator can present you an undeniable truth.

President Donald J. Trump’s remarks Saturday night in the wake of America’s “spectacular military success” striking Iran’s key nuclear facilities didn’t necessarily amount to an oration for the ages. But they did showcase a heroic man rising to a historic moment – and then some – with a pithy, powerful and pointed address.

Pithy: Your correspondent has in the past agonized over 45’s “every-which-way riff-apaloozas” and penchant for “detours and travelogues” in which he “double-covers every subject and theme.”

Not this time. With a declaration weighing in at a trim three minutes, 19 seconds, Trump didn’t waste one of his mere 525 words. He leaped into his literally earthshaking news, stating the clear objective of the attack – “the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror.”

And then immediately and forcefully “pre-butted” any doubts about the achievement of that objective with a stout insistence that the pariah state’s “key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”

The commander in chief crisply moved into a convincing and compelling defense of the actions he had ordered and graciously thanked the team that carried them out – including his Israeli partners, the “great American patriots” of the U.S. military and their leaders. Then segued smoothly into a plea for peace and a sharply, shockingly straightforward statement – given the namby-pamby double-speak in which matters of diplomacy are usually expressed – of the consequences should Iran not respond to his overture.

Powerful: It isn’t often that the words “massive” and “precision” are combined in the same description of military action. But Trump’s language throughout his brief declamation carried an oratorical impact as forceful as the 30,000-pound “bunker busters” reportedly delivered with extraordinary and deadly accuracy against Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

The Donald denounced the “horribly destructive enterprise” of the “bully of the Middle East.” Described arms and legs being blown off and the deaths of “hundreds of thousands” as “a direct result of their hate” – in essence justifying the intervention not only as a defensive measure, but as deserved and overdue payback for decades of plotting, direction, financing and implementation of agitation and violence against America, its interests and its allies.

In the most characteristically Trumpian phrasing of the evening, offered a no-brag-just-fact boast that “(t)here is no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight. Not even close.” Which lent additional emphasis, as if any was needed, to his highlighting of the “precision, speed and skill” with which the U.S. zeroed in on the “many targets left” after these sorties.

Pointed. In fact, the most powerful aspect of 47’s appearance was the unmistakable messages he delivered both to the surely shell-shocked Iranian leadership and the global community, and opponents of U.S. military involvement in countering that threat, including outright deniers of that threat in his own MAGA base.

It’s hard to miss the meaning of avowals such as “future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier” if Iran does not “make peace,” not to mention that failure to choose that path will result in “tragedy … far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.” But if those threats weren’t clear and ominous enough, Trump threw in a reference to the first-term hit he ordered on the leader of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds brute squad, Qasem Soleimani, as a reminder of Iranian leadership’s personal peril should it not bend to his will.

The president’s effusive praise of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and their cooperation “(l)ike perhaps no team has ever worked before” to go “a long way to erasing this horrible threat” to the Jewish nation left little to no daylight between the U.S. and its most important ally – in sharp contrast to his befuddled predecessor.

Plus his recitation of Iran’s past behavior and the clear rationale for action – and his political bravery in taking that action – laid bare the spineless and senseless nature of the opposition of both the Democrats’ radical progressive wing and MAGA’s manic isolationists.

And speaking of no daylight – the president ensured that his key national security players, including Vice President J.D. Vance, were literally behind him in announcing this momentous step in modern U.S. “gunship diplomacy.” Not pictured: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, still likely sporting the black eye received when her boss dismissed her assessments of Iran’s progress toward the bomb as “wrong.”

PS: Not since Ronald Reagan closed his 1980 nomination acceptance with the shy averment that he was “afraid not to” ask for a moment of silent prayer has a national leader so publicly and profoundly expressed gratitude to, love for and dependence on the Almighty for his providence and protection.

“God bless Israel, and God bless America,” indeed. And for his audacious actions and awe-inspiring words, God bless Donald Trump.

Bob Maistros, a regular contributor to Issues & Insights, is a messaging and communications strategist, crisis specialist, and former political speechwriter. He can be reached at bob@rpmexecutive.com.

Views expressed by guest contributors to Issues & Insights are their own and don’t necessarily reflect the views of the I&I Editorial Board.