In the history of world politics, there are moments when a president’s legacy is determined not by the number of years he spends in office, but by a single historic decision. President Donald Trump encountered precisely such a moment in his confrontation with the Islamic Republic of Iran. It was an opportunity to place his name alongside those leaders who played historic roles in defeating Nazism, bringing down communism, and ending apartheid. Yet just as the opportunity emerged to transform military victory into a profound political and security transformation, Trump once again fell into the diplomatic trap of a regime that has made hostility toward America and Israel the foundation of its existence for nearly half a century.
The question now is whether Trump has squandered his historic opportunity or whether he can still recover the time he has lost.
