The Peacemonger

By Abe Greenwald

Thursday, April 09, 2026

 

Despite the bold U.S. military campaigns Donald Trump has authorized in his second presidency, I think it’s still fair to say that he has a strong aversion to war. He thought it necessary to send seven B-2 bombers to blow up three Iranian nuclear sites in June. The American military had prepared such a strike for years, and the IDF had ensured that U.S. planes would meet no Iranian air defenses. The whole thing took less than 48 hours.

 

Trump was okay with a quick and clean operation to extract Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela in January. That was even shorter, and the U.S. military had spent months putting all its assets in place. Additionally, the use of an undisclosed new weapons technology meant that Venezuelans wouldn’t know what hit them. Apparently, they didn’t.

 

When Trump decided to go ahead with Operation Epic Fury on February 28, he had predetermined that it would be a time-limited war conducted without ground troops. And, once again, the preparation and coordination involved were impeccable.

 

In other words, Trump will use force in a narrowly defined context if he determines that the conditions for success are optimal. This, in itself, is a good thing.

 

What Trump really likes, however, is peace. Don’t laugh—it’s true.

 

I’m not talking about peace in the hippie, “can’t we all get along” sense. He doesn’t believe that fighting parties just need to get in touch with their inner love for all living things. Rather, Trump thinks that everyone is as transactional as he is, and there’s always a practical way to induce enemies to lay down their arms.

 

He also enjoys thinking of himself as the greatest peacemaker the world has ever seen. Trump is what you might call a peacemonger, looking to declare and preside over peace agreements at every opportunity.

 

Trump’s peace fetish, ironically, is one of his greatest foreign-policy shortcomings. Because when he can’t claim genuine progress toward peace, he’ll settle for fake progress instead. And when Trump announces pretend progress, it just means there’s a war that he’s not sufficiently dealing with.

 

He’s done this for over a year with Russia’s war on Ukraine, announcing diplomatic progress week after week, while the fighting rages on. He’s done it to some extent regarding Hamas, which remains armed despite Trump’s self-touted peace agreement requiring them to put away their guns. And Trump frequently pretends that lesser matters, such as his fight with Europe over Greenland, have been perfectly resolved to America’s benefit.

 

It’s starting to look as if the “cease-fire” with Iran is the mother of all Trump’s pretend bids for peace. Not only has Iran continued to fire on Israel and its regional Arab neighbors and inhibit shipping in the Strait of Hormuz since the cease-fire was announced Tuesday night—but virtually every one of its demands is a nonstarter for the U.S., and our terms are just as anathematic to the Iranian regime. What’s more, the regime has been so degraded by the war that Iranian leadership is bent on flaunting its obstinacy to the U.S. as a sign of strength.

 

There is no peace, no plan, and no legitimate starting point for either one.

 

Trump can afford to pretend he’s getting somewhere with Russia and Hamas because they’re not in a direct fight with the U.S. Iran is, which means make-believe progress isn’t going to cut it. The word for pretending to be at peace with a regime that’s at war with you is “surrender.” Neither Trump nor the United States can afford that.

 

Loath as the president is to wage war a moment longer than planned, I don’t see much of a choice this time.