Trump vowed to be a 'peacemaker' but foreign conflicts only ramping up on his watch
President Donald Trump, in January's inaugural address, predicted his "proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and a unifier."
Six months into his second term, conflicts are raging on three fronts around the world.
Iran and Israel are trading strikes amid fears of an all-out war in which the U.S. could become involved. Russia carried out one of its deadliest attacks on Ukraine's capital in months overnight earlier this week. In Gaza, people are struggling to find food and dozens have been killed in recent incidents near aid locations.
"He's clearly not a peacemaker, but he's not a warmaker, either," Aaron David Miller, a State Department diplomat in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations -- now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace -- told ABC News.
MORE: Trump on his 'unconditional surrender' demand to Iran: 'I've had it'
Trump vowed speedy ends to the Israel-Hamas war and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, two conflicts that broke out in the previous administration that Trump has labeled "Biden's wars." On the campaign trail, he often railed against "endless wars" and mused that he could resolve the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours -- a comment that once in office he walked back as an "exaggeration."
"He has made comments on all of them that this could be done quickly or easily and that there are solutions to these three problems," Miller said. "And yet, he has not been successful in even identifying what I would consider to be a potentially effective strategy for managing or let alone resolving them. And therein lies the challenge."
While Trump has made new diplomatic efforts a priority amid his flurry of initiatives during his first months, he's expressed increasing frustration with the foreign leaders involved and continually condemns what he calls "the death" the conflicts have wrought.
"He has followed through on his promises to try," said Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations who worked as special representative for Iran and Venezuela in Trump's first administration. "He has tried in Ukraine and he has tried in Gaza and he's tried in Iran, and none of them has worked out."
One claim of success on the foreign policy front that Trump frequently makes, and says he can replicate by pushing trade deals, is how he says he stopped the recent fighting between India and Pakistan. Trump's claimed he hasn't received enough credit: "I got it stopped. I don't think I had one story."
Trump departed a Group of Seven summit early, citing tensions in the Middle East and ordering his national security team to huddle in the Situation Room upon his return to Washington. He's received a range of options, including using U.S. military assets to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.
Trump didn't rule out the possibility, telling reporters on Wednesday: "I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do."
The president's messaging on the conflict has been mixed.
MORE: Diplomatic breakthrough or military action? Trump's choice on Iran: ANALYSIS
Trump had publicly warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu any strikes could derail talks between the U.S. and Iran on a nuclear deal. But after Israel's attacks last Friday on Tehran, Trump seemed to change his tune, telling ABC News they were "excellent" and saying they could drive Tehran to the negotiating table.
In the last few days, he's floated sending Vice President JD Vance and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to speak with the Iranians while also demanding Iran's "unconditional surrender." Officials have said the U.S. has not been involved in Israel's offensive, while Trump claimed "we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran."
"His words and deeds are chaotic and inconsistent," Miller said of Trump. "And the notion that he's unpredictable and that helps him certainly hasn't proven to be the case so far in these three conflicts."
The White House and Vice President Vance have defended Trump's position on Iran, saying he's long been clear and consistent that the nation can't have a nuclear weapon.
Abrams concedes Trump's messaging might be "confusing" but is representative of a rapidly changing situation on the ground in Tehran.
"One thing he's trying to make clear to the Ayatollah is that if he attacks American ships from bases he's done, that's the end of the regime. That is something any president should do," Abrams said.
As the administration ramps up its focus on Israel and Iran, other areas are at a standstill.
"On Gaza, no one has come up with a workable plan," Abrams said. "It's a wicked problem. [Joe] Biden didn't come up with a plan in his 15 months after October 7 and Trump hasn't come up with a workable one."
An initial three-phrase peace deal aimed at ending the war in Gaza, which was brokered by members of both the Biden and Trump administrations, collapsed in March. Since then, proposals for a temporary ceasefire have fallen through.
In Eastern Europe, Trump took a different approach than his predecessor in engaging with both the leaders of Ukraine and Russia, often saying his personal relationship with Vladimir Putin would produce results.
Some progress appeared to be made when Russian and Ukrainian officials held their first face-to-face meeting since the invasion began back in mid-May. But talks have since stalled, with the Trump administration taking a step back while Ukraine and Russia have been intensifying attacks in recent weeks.
"The president did a lot of huffing and puffing on the need for peace, but he hasn't been prepared to really push Putin in that direction," said Stephen Sestanovich, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as the State Department's ambassador-at-large for the former Soviet Union.
MORE: Trump attacks Putin over Ukraine onslaught but will he impose consequences?
William Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine during the Obama administration currently serving as a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said Putin is not going to be swayed diplomatically.
"Putin is going to be swayed by a combination of military and economic pressure," Taylor said. "So President Trump should do that."
No new commitments have been made for U.S. arms deliveries to Ukraine and no new sanctions have been placed on Russia, however, and there are now reports that the Trump administration disbanded a group focused on pressuring Russia.
"For someone who claims to have mastered the art of the deal, this is a pretty spectacular failure," Sestanovich said of Trump's approach to the Russia-Ukraine war so far.
Anna Kelly, White House Deputy press secretary, responded to the criticism, saying in a statement, 'President Trump is leading the world in ending this brutal war, which he inherited from his incompetent predecessor Joe Biden. No one cares about the opinions of armchair quarterback 'experts' who have done nothing to make the world safer.'
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