To President Trump: The Iranian Regime Will Always Seek Your and America's Death
by Majid Rafizadeh • May 24, 2025 at 5:00 am
"When you chant 'Death to America!' it is not just a slogan – it is a policy." — Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Channel 1 (Iran), November 1, 2023.
What did Iran do with this windfall of billions in cash and at least $100 billion in unfrozen assets received during Obama's term? They funneled the money into Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the regime's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and a sprawling regional terror network. Iran enriched uranium and built long-range ballistic missiles -- some with a range far beyond what is needed to attack Israel. Iran expanded its influence in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Venezuela -- all while promising America's destruction with renewed fervor.
The dangerous reality is that while the United States continues to dangle olive branches, Iran continues to rebuild its air defense systems and enlarge up its ballistic missile arsenal for future attacks.
Like Russia's and China's, Iran's is not a regime seeking peace.
The willingness of many American foreign policy elites to believe that everyone can be "brought in from the cold" is what continues to place the U.S. in constant danger. The cruel fact is that the China, Russia and Iran have different goals than the United States. The US and Trump want peace and prosperity. China, Russia and Iran do not give a flying lawbook about their citizens; they want conquest
We are not victims of Iran's deception; we are victims of our own delusions.
[E]very time a new U.S. president takes office, the same tired fantasy sprouts up: "This time, it will be different." No, it will not. The regime has not changed. We keep forgetting, and keep hoping that if we are nice enough or bribe them enough, or if they bribe us enough, they will give up their dreams of an Islamist empire.
America, and especially Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and all Congress need to wake up and acknowledge that the U.S. cannot find peace through isolationism, and that Iran, Russia and China will not be America's partners in peace.
Since the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, its regime has operated with one unshakable and unwavering ideological mission: to defy, destabilize and ultimately destroy the influence and presence of the United States and its allies, especially Israel. This is not speculation. It is in the slogans shouted in their streets, in the sermons delivered by their clerics, and in the laws enshrined in their constitution.
Iran's constitution explicitly declares its goal to export the Islamic Revolution beyond its borders. Jihad is not merely permitted -- it is prescribed.
The preamble states:
"The Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps... will be responsible not only for guarding and preserving the frontiers of the country but also for fulfilling the ideological mission of jihad in God's way; that is, extending the sovereignty of God's law throughout the world."
