You cannot make a deal with a regime that lies as a strategic weapon

I have been watching reports of negotiations between President Trump's administration and the Islamic Republic of Iran with an anguish that is difficult to put into words. I want to believe that my president understands what he is dealing with. I want to believe that this time will be different. I want to believe that he understands what I know as the truth about the Islamic Republic: that you can never negotiate with them, and they will always lie and do anything to stay in power, and in control, of more than 90 million Iranians. 

I have never lived in the White House, but I have lived inside this regime's cruelty. I spent most of my life subjugated by its misogyny as a woman. I have suffered in its prisons. I have heard its promises, and its threats. I have witnessed friends, and my husband, tortured and executed. And I know, with every part of my being, that a deal with the Islamic Republic is not a path to peace. It is a gift of time to an evil regime that has always used time as a weapon.

In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini came to power on a wave of promises. Many Iranians, including university students and idealists of every stripe, believed him. They could not yet see the true nature of what they were welcoming. It did not take long. The bloodshed began almost immediately. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians who dared to protest were killed. I grew up in the shadow of that reality, and eventually I became one of its targets, imprisoned and sentenced to death for the crime of following Jesus.

What I learned inside those prison walls is the same thing the world keeps refusing to learn outside them: this regime does not negotiate in good faith. It negotiates for survival. Lying – taqiyya - is its religiously sanctioned strategic weapon. 

Western leaders consistently make the same mistake. They look at Iran and see a government with factions, “reformists” and hardliners. They conclude that the “reformists” represent a genuine alternative. They do not. The “reformist” and hardliner structure is a performance, a deliberate good cop, bad cop strategy designed to give Westerners the illusion that progress is possible if only the right faction gains influence. In fact, both serve the same system and would sacrifice each other in an instant to preserve it.

The Islamic Republic regime is centered around an ideology, not an individual. All individuals serve the same master: the extremist Islamic Ideology. Leaders have changed but the ideology never has. Its goals do not change. From the beginning, that goal has included the export of revolutionary Islam, the destruction of the United States and Israel, and the subordination of every nation to an Islamist vision of global order. The Quds Force was not created to defend Iran. It was created to spread this revolution outward, through Hamas, through Hezbollah, through the Houthis, and through networks of influence and agents planted quietly inside Western institutions.

The “reformists” presenting themselves as reasonable partners understand something that many Western leaders do not: American presidential terms end. Policies shift. A deal signed today can be quietly undermined tomorrow, and an administration that championed it may no longer be in office to notice, or care. 

The Islamic Republic leaders are willing to allow the destruction of a few nuclear sites if it buys them relief from sanctions and renewed legitimacy. But the ideology that drives them, the infrastructure they have built across the region, and the hostility toward the United States, Israel, and the West is written into their founding documents. But none of it will appear on any negotiating table.

90 million Iranians are being held hostage by this regime. Since December 2025, most have had little to no access to the internet. More than 40,000 protesters have reportedly been killed since the nationwide uprisings began. They are written off as the cost of every deal that leaves the regime intact.

I first voted in America, in a democracy, in 2016. Before I made my decision, I prayed, and in a dream God showed me President Trump standing on a hill overlooking America, the land dry at first, then turning green and full of life. I believed then, and I believe now, that he was chosen for a purpose. That is precisely why I cannot stay silent about this.

In the Bible, God commanded King Saul to finish what needed to be finished. Because of wrong counsel and fear of the crowd, Saul compromised. He preserved what should have been removed. And God took the kingdom from him. I pray President Trump will seek God's guidance above the voices of advisors, economic interests, and polls when he makes decisions about Iran.

Donald Trump Jr. wrote recently, "This is a HUGE win for America. We need to ignore the people who won't be happy until there is a ground invasion of Iran. My father promised to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and that's exactly what he is achieving."

President Trump wrote, “I don’t make bad deals!”

With great respect: there is no real victory and no deals to be had for America while the Islamic Republic remains in power. How can we close our eyes to the blood of hundreds of thousands of Iranians, to the sacrifices of American soldiers, and to the voices of Iranian Americans who supported this president precisely because they hoped he would stand on the right side of history?

The true victory will come when this regime is no longer in power. Not managed. Not contained. Finished. 

Any agreement that leaves the Islamic Republic intact is not a deal. It is a betrayal of every Iranian who has ever bled for freedom, and a delay of a reckoning that will only grow more costly with time. And as it relates to nuclear weapons, the Islamic Republic regime will concede now to survive, and continue its plans to achieve nuclear weapons. They will never let go of this goal and are willing to make a deal now, with a President who has demonstrated that he is prepared to use force, and wait until Trump’s successor is looking the other way to break out to a weapon. No deal will change this reality. 

I was in Evin Prison at this time in 2009, during what became known as the Green Movement where Iranians protesting election fraud were slaughtered, beaten, tortured, executed, and imprisoned by the tens of thousands, or more. At the time, President Obama had the chance to act decisively. Instead, he appeased the regime and sold out the Iranian people. He made Americans less safe, and we are paying the bill now. Iranians ridiculed him. I pray that President Trump will not make the same mistakes which, today, will become even more dangerous. 

No deal can be made with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The only goal must be complete defeat which will bring Iran, America, and the world closer to peace than any time in the past half century.