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The president said he would bring a quick end to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and get China to bend on trade and Iran on its nuclear program. Instead, conflict is escalating.
By Michael Crowley and Edward Wong
Michael Crowley and Edward Wong cover diplomacy and foreign policy from Washington and have reported on international news for decades.
June 13, 2025
Donald J. Trump may be known for his combative, vindictive style. But as a candidate for president in 2024, he cast himself as a man of peace. His toughness and the “respect” he enjoys from foreign leaders, he insisted, would
enable him to settle conflicts almost with a snap of his fingers.
“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier,” Mr. Trump said in
his January inaugural address.
The war in Ukraine could be ended in as little as 24 hours, he said. He would knock heads to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to stop the fighting in Gaza.
And he said he would strike a nuclear deal with Iran, “because the consequences
are impossible. We have to make a deal.”
A day after Israel began a massive attack on Iran, however, Mr. Trump’s peace projects are in tatters. The fighting in Ukraine rages on and Mr. Trump appears to have lost patience with efforts to end that war. In Gaza, both Israel and Hamas cling to basic positions they staked out long before Mr. Trump took office.
And instead of announcing a new nuclear deal with Tehran, a president who often denounces America’s history of “stupid” Middle East wars is trying to navigate a
dangerous conflict between Iran and Israel, the closest U.S. partner in the region.
“Five months in, Trump is watching prospects of U.S.-mediated negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, the U.S. and Iran, and Israel and Hamas crater. And he’s learning the hard reality that there are severe limits to U.S. influence,
power and to his vaunted negotiating skills, especially when you don’t have an
effective strategy and aren’t willing to use U.S. leverage to make it succeed,”
said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. diplomat who worked under six secretaries
of state.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/us/politics/trump-mideast-ukraine-russia.html
Trump is *impotent* in foreign affairs. He can't get *anything* done. He's the *worst* so-called "deal maker" in history. Everyone can see this.
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