President Trump has a problem. That problem is Iran, and it has vaulted over the red line that he placed a long time ago.

On Saturday, Trump’s own hand-picked special envoy, Steve Witkoff, reported that not only was Iran not giving up their nuclear program, but that they are ratcheting up ever closer back to bomb capability.

“It’s up to 60%,” Witkoff said of Iran’s enrichment level. “They’re probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material.”

The “dangerous” proposition, Witkoff said on “My View with Lara Trump,” comes despite Trump’s “zero enrichment” red line, which he accused Iran of violating “well beyond” what a civil nuclear program requires.

“We can’t have that,” he said. “This is something that they have to stick with until they prove to us that they can behave.”

Witkoff told Fox News that the president is “curious” why Iran has not shifted course despite mounting U.S. pressure in the region.

“With the amount of sea power, naval power that we have over there, why they haven’t come to us and said, ‘We profess that we don’t want a weapon?’”

Is the president expecting the Iranian mullahs to behave like rational actors, working out of concern for the safety of the Iranian people? The hard truth is that the mullahs DO NOT CARE about their own people. They’ve been mowing down civilians in the streets and charging their families for the bullets. If they have this level of disregard for their own population, why do you think they would care about the American military buildup in the region? President Trump may see this as suicidal by the ayatollah, but he knows that if he does not commit to this, the Iranian population will rise up against him, so he is dead either way. And don’t forget, Iran is a dictatorial theocracy. The mullahs claim to speak for Allah, and if they back down now, what will that mean for their religious authority?

But you know, Ben “Hamas” Rhodes wants to get snotty with President Trump.

Old enough to remember when Iran's nuclear program was "obliterated" a few months ago. https://t.co/IoOyMITEf9

— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) February 23, 2026

Take all the seats, you pathetic sellout.

Old enough to remember when Ben Rhodes was silent as the regime slaughtered 30,000–40,000 Iranians in 2026 — and back in 2009, advised Obama not to stand with Iranians being gunned down in the streets. https://t.co/L6kj92I1rW

— Mark Dubowitz (@mdubowitz) February 23, 2026

The other issue at hand is that the United States is not the only target in the region. Israel knows that if Iran gets their weapons platforms operational again, they will be the second targets, if not the first ones. Israel may have asked President Trump to hold off on an attack intially, but only because they want to make sure that they aren’t on the receiving end of something much worse.

Iran is producing ballistic missiles armed with “chemical and biological capabilities” in preparation for a military confrontation with the United States and Israel, according to Israeli military adviser Amir Avivi, who told the Washington Free Beacon that such missiles must be “dealt with” in any strike on Iran.

“There is a discussion in the Israeli defense establishment about the possibility of chemical and biological weapons,” Avivi, who served as a brigadier general with the IDF and counsels the Israeli government on defense, told the Free Beacon in an interview Monday. “We know that they have capability to send a warhead that is chemical.” For decades, the U.S. government has assessed that Iran is researching and developing chemical agents, specifically “anesthetics used to incapacitate victims by targeting the central nervous system,” according to the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.

“This is why we want to make sure that any attack on this regime will make sure that all these capabilities are dealt with,” Avivi said.

Meanwhile, Iran keeps trying to dangle a deal in front of President Trump.

But is the point to get a deal, or delay a possible strike long enough to send a devastating chemical bomb into Israel? That is the presidential-level question that only President Trump is going to be able to answer. He has already set a deadline of ten to fifteen days to reach a deal, but Iran doesn’t follow the terms of their “deals.” The only thing they understand is power. The protesters threatened their power, they get gunned down. They flex their power via proxies and drones in the Middle East, Israel and the United States make them pay for it. President Trump really resonates with President Theodore Roosevelt’s adage “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Sometimes, though, the speaking doesn’t work.

Mr. President, it’s time to use the stick.

Featured image: Historic Iran flag via iStock, cropped and modified