As AFN reported earlier this week, President Donald Trump granted the request of several Middle Eastern counties, putting a new bombing campaign on hold and agreeing to return to the negotiating table.
"It's right on the borderline," he told reporters Wednesday. "If we don't get the right answers, it goes very quickly," he said, meaning he is prepared to take swift military action if the U.S. does not get satisfactory concessions from Tehran.
Critics from across the political spectrum have raised concerns about both the substance and the tone of President Trump's remarks.
Gary Bauer of American Values says anyone can second guess the president, "but of all those people with these opinions, there's only one person that has all the actual facts, and that's the president."
Trump has not elaborated on what "the right answers" are, but he has not backed off from the demand that Iran give up its nuclear ambitions and open the Strait of Hormuz.
"What Iran was getting ready to do, what they might do now, what their relative strength is, what we have in reserve — only he has that, and it's leading him to take the approach that he's taking," Bauer says.
He does not, however, think the president is doing ally Benjamin Netanyahu any public relations favors.
"He'll do whatever I want him to do," Trump told reporters when asked how long the Israeli prime minister would hold off on strikes. "He's a very good man. He'll do whatever I want him to do."
Bauer does not think Netanyahu welcomed those comments.
"Some people say that President Trump shouldn't feel compelled to say every thought that enters his mind," he notes. "This might be one of those occasions."
