Iran's mullahs are watching two American aircraft carriers close in as a countdown clock runs out.
Ron DeSantis went on Life, Liberty & Levin Sunday night and explained exactly why we're here.
But Ron DeSantis warned America about Iran for years and now Trump is doing something about it.
Jimmy Carter's Catastrophe Is Finally Getting Fixed
DeSantis started where every honest conversation about Iran has to start: 1979.
The Florida governor reminded millions of viewers that before Jimmy Carter destroyed a decades-long alliance in one miserable presidency, the United States had a rock-solid partner in the Shah of Iran.
Carter turned his back on the Shah, helped usher the Ayatollah Khomeini into power, and handed the Islamic Republic control of the most strategically important nation in the Middle East.
Reagan said it in 1984.
DeSantis is saying it now.
The harvest of that betrayal arrived over the following decades: over a thousand American servicemembers killed by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq – DeSantis was deployed there and watched those casualty reports come in – three proxy wars, and a regime that spent the next half-century building toward a nuclear weapon while calling America the Great Satan.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2010149384395395398?s=20
DeSantis put it plainly: there is no deal to be made here.
"There is no way you can negotiate your way out of the fact that ultimately, this is a regime pledged to Islamic jihad," he said.
Trump Is Following Through – and Iran Knows It
The contrast with every president since Reagan couldn't be sharper.
Obama handed Iran billions in unfrozen assets and a glide path to nuclear capability in exchange for a deal that every serious analyst knew Tehran had no intention of honoring.
Biden let Iran rebuild its proxy network, flood the region with cash, and enrich uranium to 83.7% purity – one technical step from weapons-grade – while begging for a return to the same failed framework.
Trump struck Iran's nuclear facilities alongside Israel last June, slapped on sanctions that shredded the rial by more than 40%, and watched the Iranian people flood every major city in the largest uprising since the 1979 revolution.
Now Trump has given the regime 10 to 15 days to reach a meaningful deal or face what he called "bad things."
This isn't theater.
Two full American carrier strike groups are in the region – over 14 warships, F-35 stealth fighters, and B-2 bombers equipped with the only conventional weapon in the U.S. arsenal capable of reaching Iran's buried nuclear facility at Fordow.
Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran, told Fox News Digital the administration harbors deep skepticism that diplomacy produces any acceptable outcome – and that the military buildup may be designed primarily to sharpen Tehran's choices while positioning forces for a strike if talks collapse.
https://twitter.com/Floridianpress/status/2025981481835717056?s=20
DeSantis said Trump will follow through.
"Knowing him, he's gonna follow through," the Florida governor said of Trump's stated support for Iranians fighting for their freedom.
The Pattern Democrats Refuse to See
What DeSantis laid out Sunday night is a pattern the left will never acknowledge – because acknowledging it means admitting that decades of Democratic accommodation kept a death cult in power and got Americans killed.
Carter saw fundamentalist sharks circling an ailing Shah and helped engineer his fall.
Obama saw a regime strangling its own people and sent them a pile of cash.
Biden watched Iran's nuclear program sprint toward weapons-grade capability and offered to shake hands.
Every Democrat who had a chance to confront this regime chose accommodation over strength – and American servicemembers paid for it.
Trump struck in June, the regime's currency collapsed, its proxies got dismantled across the region, and millions of Iranians rose up demanding the Islamic Republic's end.
DeSantis called it a long time coming.
The only question now is whether the mullahs read the room before the clock runs out.
Sources:
- Jeff Poor, "DeSantis: Iran Regime Turmoil 'a Long Time Coming,'" Breitbart, February 23, 2026.
- Grayson Bakich, "Ron DeSantis Says Unfolding Iran Events Were 'A Long Time Coming,'" The Florida Voice, February 23, 2026.
- "Trump Gives Iran 10-Day Ultimatum, But Experts Signal Talks May Be Buying Time for Strike," Fox News Digital, February 20, 2026.
- Michael Doran, "The Ayatollah's Regime Is Crumbling," Hudson Institute, January 2026.
- "2025–2026 Iran–United States Negotiations," Wikipedia, updated February 24, 2026.
