President Donald Trump, in January’s inaugural deal with, predicted his “proudest legacy might be that of a peacemaker and a unifier.”
Six months into his second time period, conflicts are raging on three fronts all over the world.
Iran and Israel are buying and selling strikes amid fears of an all-out struggle wherein the U.S. might turn out to be concerned. Russia carried out considered one of its deadliest assaults on Ukraine’s capital in months in a single day earlier this week. In Gaza, individuals are struggling to search out meals and dozens have been killed in current incidents close to help places.
“He is clearly not a peacemaker, however he is not a warmaker, both,” Aaron David Miller, a State Division diplomat within the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations — now on the Carnegie Endowment for Worldwide Peace — informed ABC Information.
President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One on the South Garden on the White Home, June 15, 2025 in Washington.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Photographs
Trump vowed speedy ends to the Israel-Hamas struggle and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two conflicts that broke out within the earlier administration that Trump has labeled “Biden’s wars.” On the marketing campaign path, he typically railed in opposition to “countless wars” and mused that he might resolve the Russia-Ukraine struggle in 24 hours — a remark that after in workplace he walked again as an “exaggeration.”
“He has made feedback on all of them that this may very well be finished shortly or simply and that there are answers to those three issues,” Miller mentioned. “And but, he has not been profitable in even figuring out what I’d take into account to be a probably efficient technique for managing or not to mention resolving them. And therein lies the problem.”
Whereas Trump has made new diplomatic efforts a precedence amid his flurry of initiatives throughout his first months, he is expressed rising frustration with the overseas leaders concerned and regularly condemns what he calls “the dying” the conflicts have wrought.
“He has adopted by way of on his guarantees to attempt,” mentioned Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Center Japanese research on the Council on International Relations who labored as particular consultant for Iran and Venezuela in Trump’s first administration. “He has tried in Ukraine and he has tried in Gaza and he is tried in Iran, and none of them has labored out.”
One declare of success on the overseas coverage entrance that Trump ceaselessly makes, and says he can replicate by pushing commerce offers, is how he says he stopped the current combating between India and Pakistan. Trump’s claimed he hasn’t obtained sufficient credit score: “I received it stopped. I do not suppose I had one story.”
Trump now faces troublesome selection on Iran and Israel
Trump departed a Group of Seven summit early, citing tensions within the Center East and ordering his nationwide safety staff to huddle within the State of affairs Room upon his return to Washington. He is obtained a spread of choices, together with utilizing U.S. navy property to strike Iranian nuclear amenities.
Trump did not rule out the chance, telling reporters on Wednesday: “I’ll do it. I’ll not do it. I imply, no person is aware of what I’ll do.”
The president’s messaging on the battle has been combined.
Trump had publicly warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu any strikes might derail talks between the U.S. and Iran on a nuclear deal. However after Israel’s assaults final Friday on Tehran, Trump appeared to alter his tune, telling ABC Information they have been “wonderful” and saying they may drive Tehran to the negotiating desk.
In the previous few days, he is floated sending Vice President JD Vance and Particular Envoy Steve Witkoff to talk with the Iranians whereas additionally demanding Iran’s “unconditional give up.” Officers have mentioned the U.S. has not been concerned in Israel’s offensive, whereas Trump claimed “we now have full and whole management of the skies over Iran.”
Israeli first responders work in a residential space hit by a missile fired from Iran, in Bat Yam, Israel, June 15, 2025.
Ariel Schalit/AP
“His phrases and deeds are chaotic and inconsistent,” Miller mentioned of Trump. “And the notion that he is unpredictable and that helps him actually hasn’t confirmed to be the case thus far in these three conflicts.”
The White Home and Vice President Vance have defended Trump’s place on Iran, saying he is lengthy been clear and constant that the nation cannot have a nuclear weapon.
Abrams concedes Trump’s messaging may be “complicated” however is consultant of a quickly altering scenario on the bottom in Tehran.
“One factor he is attempting to clarify to the Ayatollah is that if he assaults American ships from bases he is finished, that is the tip of the regime. That’s one thing any president ought to do,” Abrams mentioned.
Peace in Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars stays out of attain
Because the administration ramps up its concentrate on Israel and Iran, different areas are at a standstill.
“On Gaza, nobody has provide you with a workable plan,” Abrams mentioned. “It is a depraved downside. [Joe] Biden didn’t provide you with a plan in his 15 months after October 7 and Trump hasn’t provide you with a workable one.”
An preliminary three-phrase peace deal aimed toward ending the struggle in Gaza, which was brokered by members of each the Biden and Trump administrations, collapsed in March. Since then, proposals for a short lived ceasefire have fallen by way of.
Individuals carrying sacks of flour stroll alongside al-Rashid road in western Jabalia, June 17, 2025, after humanitarian help vehicles reportedly entered the northern Gaza Strip by way of the Israeli-controlled Zikim border crossing, amid the continuing struggle between Israel and Hamas.
Basher Taleb/AFP through Getty Photographs
Ukrainian rescuers conduct a search and rescue work in a closely broken residential constructing following the Russian missile strike in Kyiv on June 17, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Genya Savilov/AFP through Getty Photographs
In Japanese Europe, Trump took a distinct method than his predecessor in partaking with each the leaders of Ukraine and Russia, typically saying his private relationship with Vladimir Putin would produce outcomes.
Some progress seemed to be made when Russian and Ukrainian officers held their first face-to-face assembly for the reason that invasion started again in mid-Might. However talks have since stalled, with the Trump administration taking a step again whereas Ukraine and Russia have been intensifying assaults in current weeks.
“The president did a variety of huffing and puffing on the necessity for peace, however he hasn’t been ready to actually push Putin in that path,” mentioned Stephen Sestanovich, a senior fellow on the Council on International Relations who served because the State Division’s ambassador-at-large for the previous Soviet Union.
William Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine throughout the Obama administration at the moment serving as a senior fellow on the Atlantic Council, mentioned Putin isn’t going to be swayed diplomatically.
“Putin goes to be swayed by a mix of navy and financial stress,” Taylor mentioned. “So President Trump ought to do this.”
No new commitments have been made for U.S. arms deliveries to Ukraine and no new sanctions have been positioned on Russia, nonetheless, and there are actually studies that the Trump administration disbanded a bunch centered on pressuring Russia.
“For somebody who claims to have mastered the artwork of the deal, this can be a fairly spectacular failure,” Sestanovich mentioned of Trump’s method to the Russia-Ukraine struggle thus far.
