For more than four decades, Donald Trump has called for invading Iran, seizing its oil, and preventing it from gaining a nuclear weapon.

In 1980, Trump complained that the Iran hostage crisis was a sign that America no longer commanded international respect. His interviewer replied, “Obviously you’re advocating that we should have gone in there with troops, et cetera, and brought our boys out like Vietnam.” Trump replied: “I absolutely feel that, yes.

In a 1987 speech, Trump suggested, that the United States should “attack Iran and seize some of its oil fields in retaliation for … Iran’s bullying of America.”

In 1988, Trump told The Guardian, “I’d be harsh on Iran. They’ve been beating us psychologically, making us look a bunch of fools. One bullet shot at one of our men or ships and I’d do a number on Kharg Island,” an Iranian oil hub.

2011, Trump told Bill O’Reilly, “I wouldn’t let them have a nuke”—referring to Iran. He then dismissed Barack Obama as a “weak president that kisses everybody’s ass.”

In 2024, after intelligence officials told Trump that Iran was attempting to assassinate him, Trump declared, “An attack on a former President is a Death Wish for the attacker!”

https://www.compactmag.com/article/trump-was-always-an-iran-hawk/
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