John Bolton

Not enough to stop it, and there's clear evidence at Pickaxe Mountain and at other sites the Iranians have tried to start new efforts or repair the ones that were damaged.

Well, I think any president takes public opinion into account.

And that's one reason why it's just fundamental sort of politics 101 that if you're going to undertake something that's difficult, risky, dangerous, you need to go to the people and convince them.

And I'm not saying you ought to look at polls and decide, well, if it's 51-49, I'm not going to do it.

But when you're commander-in-chief, your hand is strengthened when you have more popular support, when you have more vigorous support even from your own party on Capitol Hill.

So I don't think this is rocket science here.

It's just good politics to work to make sure that you go into a conflict in as –

strong a position domestically as you can, because until you achieve victory, you often go through some very difficult times, which I think Trump is now experiencing.

And they don't have to be as hard for him as they're going to be because he didn't do his homework.

No, not at all.

Just this morning, there's a report that the regime has selected a new secretary of the Supreme National Security Council held by Ali Larajani, who was killed a few days ago.

And this guy is reported to be an old-time Revolutionary Guard hardliner.

So, you know, if he's the new National Security Council secretary...

That's an indication that he's probably even more hard-line than Larijani.

To the extent the regime can rebuild, and that's simply a matter of getting oil flows out through the Strait of Hormuz, I have no doubt they'll be back to an assertive nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program and lining up their terrorist surrogates again.

Well, I think if you are going to go after the goal of regime change, you have to know what you're getting into and be resolved to work your way through it in order to achieve it.

And if you don't think you can achieve it, then don't start it.

Try something else.

And it's clear Trump hasn't done many of those things.

And that's why he's in the conundrum that he is himself in now.