He was going to end Russia’s war against Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office in January. Five months later, he’s still struggling to understand what Vladimir Putin is really about, and how to avoid having to admit he failed.

Now Donald Trump is trying to convince the world that he hopes to be able to bring an end to the growing conflict between Israel and Iran, saying on Sunday that “I think there’s a good chance there’s going to be a deal. I think it’s time for [a] deal and we’ll see what happens, but sometimes they have to fight it out.” [Kit Maher, CNN, June 16, 2025.]

The man seems to have serious difficulty with committing to a firm stance. Or perhaps . . . in fact, more likely . . . he’s just giving himself the wiggle room he needs in order to change direction when things don’t go his way.

Alleging that “we get along really well” with Iran, and that he believes Israel and Iran “have great respect for each other” (I have no idea where he came up with that last one!), he has thus far declined to say whether he has asked Israel to pause its attacks on Iran, commenting only, “I don’t want to say that.” [Id.]

It’s becoming his scripted response to conflicts anywhere in the world. When discussing the Russia-Ukraine war, he had this to say from the Oval Office earlier this month:

“Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy. They hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don’t want to be pulled, sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart” [id.] . . . as though that had been his strategy all along.

Well, that may work well enough with two equally-matched kids on the playground — as long as they don’t end up beating the living daylights out of each other. But at least they’re not equipped with armies, missiles, drones . . . or nuclear weapons.

Someone needs to tell Trump it’s time to stop thinking like a kid in the schoolyard, and perhaps formulate some honest-to-goodness foreign policy. Of course, for that he’d need actual expert advice, which these days is in short supply in Washington. And even if such advice were available, he’d first have to learn to shut up and start listening.

And good luck with that.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/16/25