An Iranian general threatens Trump with Carter's fate... So what happened to the former American president?

Mohsen Rezaee, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and the former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, linked the outcomes of an American-Israeli war on Iran to the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

“Mohsen Rezaee, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and the former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, linked the outcomes of an American-Israeli war on Iran to the upcoming U”

Al-Jazeera Net

Rezaee said in a post on his X account Tuesday that the end of this war would change the balance of power in the region and the international order in favor of Iran.

Al-Jazeera Net

Rezaee threatened U.S. President Donald Trump with a repetition of the downfall scenario that befell former President Jimmy Carter, even though Trump is currently leading the country in his second presidential term, unlike Carter, who at the time was at the end of his first term.

Rezaee predicted that "Carter's fate" would be repeated with Trump, a clear reference to 1980, when the hostage crisis at the U.S. embassy in Tehran led to Carter's collapse in popularity and his election defeat to Ronald Reagan.

Al-Jazeera Net

The article recounts the 1979 hostage crisis: on November 4, 1979 revolutionary students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 members of the American mission's staff and diplomats for 444 days.

“Mohsen Rezaee, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and the former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, linked the outcomes of an American-Israeli war on Iran to the upcoming U”

Al-Jazeera Net

The ostensible reason was to punish the United States for granting asylum to the deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Carter appeared weak in the eyes of the public after a military rescue operation he ordered in 1980 ended in failure, with eight American soldiers killed in a plane accident.

With his popularity waning, Ronald Reagan seized the opportunity and won the presidential election held on November 4, 1980, and the release of the hostages coincided with Reagan's inauguration as president on January 20, 1981.

Rezaee's evocation of Jimmy Carter's name confirms that Tehran still views the hostage issue and regional crises as effective tools for defeating U.S. presidents at the ballot box.

Although Trump won a second term in the November 2024 election, and the constitution does not permit him to run for another term, the results of the war could affect his Republican Party in the midterm elections scheduled for November 2026 and could cast a shadow over his political legacy more generally.

Al-Jazeera Net