President Trump called in to Rush Limbaugh’s show today. I haven’t heard the entire interview but this highlight appeared on Twitter. The Free Beacon gave this the “Beast Mode” treatment: “We never had it like we have it now and Iran knows that and they’ve been put on notice. If you f**k around with us, if you do something bad to us we are going to do things to you that have never been done before.”

BEASTMODE: Trump had a message for the Iranian regime on the Rush Limbaugh Show, and he didn't mince words.https://t.co/jCbW0vYGJ4 pic.twitter.com/oHrfsQCktT

— Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) October 9, 2020

Naturally there are plenty of progressives who, having spent the morning comparing Trump to Hitler, are now very upset by this use of language. Okay, I agree that I don’t want a president who is routinely using four-letter words in interviews, but in this case we’re talking about Iran so he gets a complete pass from me.

For several years under the Obama administration, Iran was treated with kid gloves. Obama’s great 2nd term foreign policy accomplishment was the Iran deal which handed a bunch of lying, America-hating, US-troop-killing, theocratic nutjobs billions of dollars and plenty of praise from the US government in exchange for putting off their nuclear ambitions for a decade or so.

Trump has had a different approach, exemplified by his decision to withdraw from the Iran deal and target and take out Gen. Soleimani, the single person most responsible for Iran’s regional reign of terror. Iran responded to that with threats and an airstrike that did injure some American soldiers.

While Iran was waiting nervously for a response to that strike it shot down a jet full of passengers leaving from its own airport. As usual, Iran lied about its responsibility until it couldn’t any more.

This summer, there were a series of unexplained explosions and fires at various Iranian nuclear sites. Once again, Iran downplayed or outright lied about what had happened. A group calling itself “Cheetahs of the Homeland” claimed responsibility for those attacks but some observers said it looked like the work of Israel. And if it was Israel, those attacks probably had at least a tacit go-ahead from the U.S.

All of that to say, there’s really no point in flattering Iran with pleasantries. They hate us almost as much as they hate Israel. They are responsible for killing and maiming hundreds of U.S. soldiers in Iraq a little more than a decade ago. So Trump’s language seems perfectly apt. If they want to chant “Death to America” at prayers every week that’s fine but if they try to actually do something to the U.S. beyond running their mouths, it should be clear there will be a heavy price to pay.

This is frankly one of the reasons I dread the possibility of a Biden administration. With Biden we would see an influx of Iran deal supporters eager to bring us back to the days of sucking up to Javad Zarif and whoever else they send. Ben “echo chamber” Rhodes is already daydreaming about getting the band back together:

Reminds me of something Obama used to say: if you always have to tell people how tough you are, you probably aren't. https://t.co/CMxKsjbXYO

— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) October 9, 2020