Do not be fooled: Iran’s Islamist regime is building a post-Trump nightmare

There is no realistic path for Iran to become a constructive, peaceful country while its current leadership remains.

By Majid Rafizadeh, Gatestone Institute

Iran’s Islamist regime has not been in power by accident for nearly 50 years.

The regime is already laying the groundwork for conditions that will make the world far more perilous after President Donald Trump’s term of office ends.

The regime is a dictatorship, oriented long-term.

What Iran is doing now is preparing for the post-Trump era—as in the series of arrangements and agreements with Oman for the Strait of Hormuz—control over roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil transit outside U.S. or Western control.

Recent joint meetings of the Hormuz Committee and frameworks for temporary corridors, mine-clearing, and permanent management reveal that—no surprise—Iran is seeking lasting influence over the waterway, “service fees” of a few million dollars per tanker, day after day, as well as geopolitical leverage over oil-dependent countries, even in the West.

Some of the revenue Iran earns would also flow to its proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other militias.

Without another leader as willing as Trump to confront Tehran directly, the regime will extract concessions, dictate terms, and attain hegemonic power in the region.

The Oman negotiations are planning for the period after Trump.

Pressure might ease, and Iran could resume holding energy markets hostage—extracting further concessions while expanding its terror network.

Iran’s regime appears to believe it can survive the economic sanctions. It already has.

It weathered multiple rounds of United Nations Security Council sanctions, not merely unilateral U.S. measures, and endured an eight-year war with Iraq.

The regime only has to wait out two small remaining years of this administration before it can resume doing anything it wants.

Iran, with the help of its allies, Russia, and China (here, here, and here), has been using pauses in the action to rebuild its military capabilities.

Russia has been helping Iran develop supersonic cruise missiles, as well as having shipped explosives, ammunition, and drone components to restock arsenals depleted in recent fighting.

Ballistic-missile reconstitution has already surprised observers with its speed. Iran, Russia, and China are clearly planning to hold the world hostage in a broader challenge to the existing order.

Economic sanctions, including stringent secondary sanctions, as outlined by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, need to be tightly enforced, especially against Russia and China, countries that are enabling Iran.

Pressure also needs to be applied to Gulf states and other neighboring countries, including Iraq, to halt talks and arrangements that strengthen Tehran’s hand.

Above all, Iran’s current leadership cannot stay. If this regime is allowed to remain in power, the world after Trump will not be the same.

The United States would do itself a great service to resume working closely with Israel. Israel understands how to target and transform adversaries’ leadership structures.

The present Iranian leadership is anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Iranian—reportedly slaughtering 100,000 of its own people this year alone.

There is no realistic path for Iran to become a constructive, peaceful country while its current leadership remains. Totally removing this leadership is essential.

If it stays, there will be no lasting peace, security, or good life for democracies or the West.

Bring the regime down, or it will keep pulling the world under its Islamist rule.