Rumors have circulated recently that Iran, still seething over our assassination of terror mastermind Qassem Soleimani last January, is targeting U. S. ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks for payback.  President Trump must have seen the intelligence and judged the threat plausible.

On Rush Limbaugh's program Friday, the president warned Iran publically, in extraordinarily direct terms, to think twice about attacking Americans or American interests: "They've been put on notice: If you f--- around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before."

For those who detest the man, it's Trump unhinged and uninhibited, perhaps overmedicated and irrational in his bout with COVID-19.   If you admire the man, it's vintage Trump, Trump unbound, Trump uncensored. 

Reliable information that Iran is planning to kill a U. S. ambassador?  No mealy-mouthed talk from this president about illusory red lines that should not be crossed, no namby-pamby mush about potential consequences, no diplomatically worded cautionary admonitions, no backchannel feelers beseeching forbearance.  Just a stark and purposely profane message to Iran's leaders about hell raining down on them, perhaps ensuring the martyrdom they crave, if they try something. 

Anyone think Trump's threat didn't get their attention?  I suspect that his directness scared the bejeezus out of the ayatollahs.  They knew they could play Obama, ignore him, distract him.  In response to a provocation, he might bomb some outpost, then quit and beg them to come back to the table.  They know now that Trump is the antithesis of Obama — and the most formidable president since Reagan.  And he makes no idle threats.

The swamp creatures at State are getting the vapors over Trump's explicit language, his tone and manner.  International diplomats are shaking their heads and tut-tutting about the president's crudity.  Potty-mouth Hillary will rail about his coarseness.  Nancy Pelosi might try impeaching him again for his dangerous, reckless talk.

What the president understands and his detractors don't is that sometimes it's necessary to get in the other guy's face to dissuade him from making a bad decision.

Steve Grammatico is the author of You Hear Me, Barack?  PC-Free Conservative Satire.  He blogs at You Hear Me, Barack?  A Repository of Conservative Satire, where he's just posted a satire of a Joe Biden press conference.