Foreign Policy > China

Trump’s Trifecta: Advancement for America and Setbacks for China

Trump’s trifecta, fraught with risk, has effectively put the United States on a path of global dominance.

Scott S. Powell | March 25, 2026

Iran is understandably the number one news story with primary focus on the progress of U.S. military and diplomatic engagement and the responses of the Shiite mullah regime in Tehran. Almost no one is thinking or talking about the equally important spiritual and cultural ramifications for Iran, and the region, if the United States prevails -- driving the current regime in Iran out of power. There’s even less analysis of the shifting geopolitics resulting from the combined effects of successful U.S. operations restoring control of the Panama Canal, Venezuela and its resources, the collapse of Cuba, and the degradation of narco-terrorism -- all in the Western Hemisphere, and the fall of the current Iranian regime -- in the heart of the Middle East.

Christianity has ancient roots in Iran, which was known as Persia, dating all the way back to 1st century A.D., making it one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Acts 2 recounts that at the time of the Pentecost when Jewish people from all parts of the diaspora were gathered in Jerusalem, they heard people speaking in many tongues, including the Parthians, Medes, and Elamites -- three separate groups that came from what is now in the territory of Iran.

After Pentecost, two of Jesus’ Apostles, Saint Thaddeus and Saint Bartholomew, traveled east to evangelize in what is now Iran, Iraq, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Armenia, which now borders north Iran, would become the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity as its official state religion in 301 AD.

The original Monastery of Saint Thaddeus was established in northern Iran in AD 66–68, after Thaddeus........

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