Trump’s Iran Betrayal: From ‘Help Is on the Way’ To Handing The Regime $300 Billion
This MOU feels more like a political move than a military or strategic one.
Vince Coyner | June 19, 2026
In 1979 the Shah of Iran was overthrown and Ayatollah Khomeini came to power. Later that year, students took over the American Embassy and took 52 hostages. Thus began one of the most transformative moments in American history. Americans became glued to their television sets like never before. It birthed Nightline as Ted Koppel came into our homes nightly and told us how many days they’d been held. It became a nightly ritual from coast to coast. And that’s where the ubiquitous yellow ribbons started.
America had watched television en masse before, during moments of the Vietnam War (Tet) or during the moon landing, but nothing like this. It’s no coincidence that CNN’s Headline News launched in June 1980, right in the middle of this. And thus began America’s captivation with always on news.
The transformative effects of that revolution were not just on American television viewing habits. More importantly, it was likely the deciding factor in Ronald Reagan’s election. While Carter had other problems, the Nightline count was a hurdle he couldn’t overcome. The hostages survived and were released after 444 days, in the middle of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration speech.
The Iranian revolution was similar to the Cuban revolution. Both were led by charismatic leaders who lied their way into power. Both hid their true agendas while promising freedom, independence and justice against a tyrannical government. Once in power, both stepped from behind the curtain and began a tyranny that far outstripped that of their predecessors in both scope and brutality and became enemies of America.
Khomeini’s brutality hit America in 1983 when Iranian backed fighters bombed the American Embassy in Beirut in April, killing 63 people, and then the US Marine Barracks in October, killing 241. Sadly, in one of his few mistakes in office, Reagan, listening to the advice of Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, chose not to respond.
And thus began decades of Iranian backed terrorist attacks on Americans that would strike everywhere from Saudi Arabia to Tanzania to Yemen. What’s more, during the Iraq war at least 500 American troops were killed by Iranian backed fighters.
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/06/trump_s_iran_betrayal_from_help_is_on_the_way_to_handing_the_regime_300_billion.html
