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Why hasn’t Trump stopped Russia? He doesn’t understand the stakes.

Iran’s regime drew decisive action from the president, yet he continues to indulge Vladimir Putin.

By MAX BOOT

Washington Post
July 3, 2025

On June 19, facing pressure to join in Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran, President Donald Trump announced, “I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.” Cynics assumed this was yet another example of the president putting off a difficult decision indefinitely. “TACO,” some said, employing a popular acronym for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

The doubters were wrong. Two days later, U.S. bombs and missiles hit three Iranian nuclear sites. Though there has been much debate over just how much damage the Iranian nuclear program suffered, at least one thing now seems clear: Trump meant it went he said that Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism that has vowed “death to Israel,” would not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.

If only the president had the same moral clarity about stopping the barbaric war being waged in Ukraine by Iran’s despotic ally, Russia. When it comes to that conflict, however, Trump appears to be engaged in exactly the kind of irresolute policy that many (wrongly) suspected he was pursuing with Iran.