Asger Risom
Efforts to cast the U.S. president as a global stabilizer face renewed scrutiny after Israel’s defiant assault on Tehran’s military network.
U.S. President Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to end foreign conflicts and broker peace.
But nearly five months into his second term, hopes of reshaping the global order are unraveling as violence persists in Gaza and Ukraine — and now, Israel’s large-scale attack on Iran has further damaged his foreign policy credentials.
Israel undermines U.S. diplomacy
On Thursday, Israel struck dozens of Iranian targets in a sudden and expansive operation.
According to analysts cited by Reuters, the escalation could lead to regional war and directly contradicts Trump’s behind-the-scenes efforts to restrain Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The strike also marks a setback for Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who had worked with Iranian officials to curb the country’s nuclear ambitions.
Those talks had already stalled before the Israeli offensive, which was reportedly launched without U.S. involvement.
Faltering peace track record
Trump’s administration has struggled to revive ceasefire deals, including a short-lived truce between Israel and Hamas early this year.
Peace negotiations in Ukraine remain frozen, and no progress has been made in expanding the Abraham Accords, a cornerstone of Trump’s first-term foreign policy.
Democratic critics have voiced frustration over the administration’s lack of a viable alternative to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Trump scrapped during his first term.
“This is a disaster of Trump and Netanyahu’s own making,” said Senator Chris Murphy on X, warning of an impending spiral toward wider conflict, while commenters on X called the deal ‘an unenforceable joke’.
Risk of broader escalation
Analysts now question both the scope of Israel’s military goals and Iran’s capacity to retaliate.
While Israel claims to have struck several high-ranking Iranian targets, it may lack the firepower to neutralize deep-set facilities like the Fordow nuclear plant without U.S. military aid.
Whether this marks a temporary derailment or a lasting blow to Trump’s peacemaker image will depend on how Iran, and the wider region, responds in the coming days.