Yet just five months ago, Donald Trump was touting his role as a peacemaker in the Middle East. Now, his leadership is caught in a new stormy shutdown crossfire. On January 20, 2025, he took office as the 47th president of the United States during an inauguration ceremony held in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. With his recent appointment of John Bolton and recent bombing actions, he’s lost trust from many on his commitment to diplomacy and peace.
If only a week after Israel begins its strike on Iran, the U.S. acts similarly. It initiated its own direct military escalation against Tehran, making it the first participant in the now years-long Israel-Iran war on Trump’s watch. This escalation leaves Washington deeply enmeshed in direct conflict with Iran, marking a drastic turn away from long-standing U.S. attempts to steer clear of such direct confrontation.
Forty-eight hours ahead of the massive military action, Trump went big. He suggested that the United States should give multilateral diplomacy “two weeks” to judge whether it could reduce tensions between Israel and Iran. This statement is in dire contradiction to his choice to move forward with strikes on military interests. It exposes the inconsistencies and contradictions in his approach to foreign affairs.
In his inauguration address, President Trump doubled down on his opposition to Iran, letting loose a battle cry over the threat posed by Tehran’s nuclear pursuits. He has long been a leader in the fight to stop Iran’s march towards nuclear weapons. At a campaign rally in Greensboro last fall, he declared forcefully, “Iran is not going to get a nuclear weapon.” His administration’s unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 started a dangerous downward spiral in U.S.-Iranian relations. He frequently points to this move as proof of his hardline approach to Tehran.
Despite all of these promises, Trump’s recent mass actions have received biting criticism in legacy-shaping ways. Trump ran in 2016 as an outsider opposing a deepening U.S. conflict his administration is now helping expand, critics say. On the campaign trail in 2024, he promised to “stop World War Three” and bring an end to the “chaos in the Middle East.” His administration’s recent military decisions now appear to directly undermine those commitments.
Trump’s recent military operation involved dropping a “full load of BOMBS on the primary site, Fordow,” as he confirmed in a post on Truth Social. The Fordow facility has been the focus of extensive alarmism about Iran’s purported race to build nuclear weapons. Trump’s militaristic approach severely hampers his capacity to bring people together and build peace in the region.
To make matters even more complicated, Trump’s legacy win, the Abraham Accords, muddy the waters. This historic deal was focused on promoting peace between Israel and many of its neighboring Arab countries. Recent events have raised uncertainty about how this legacy will ultimately be viewed. As war breaks out once more in the Middle East, chaos and fear inundate us.
“We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end – and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.” – Donald Trump
As Trump steers the ship through these unruly waters, his administration’s actions will for better or worse, determine the legacy of his presidency. His pledges for peace are a sharp contrast to the new military escalation. This inconsistency poses troubling and dangerous questions about the direction of U.S. foreign policy under his command.