Trump promised a peacemaker presidency. What happened?

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It wasn’t a one-off statement from President Donald Trump that he would end wars and bring about world peace during a second White House term.

It was a major plank of his presidential campaign.

Trump promised a calmer world during his debate with then-President Joe Biden last June. Biden’s poor performance and the perception that Trump would be a stronger leader helped drive Biden from the race.

Things have not settled down on the world stage since Trump took office. In fact, there’s a new conflict brewing and Trump is actively considering US military strikes against Iran, warning that Iran’s nuclear capabilities are more developed than his own intelligence community has assessed.

Americans now looking at the real possibility of the US joining Israel’s strike at Iran could wonder what happened to the Trump who promised peace on the campaign trail.

Trump frequently criticized Biden for the fact that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas both happened on Biden’s watch. “(Biden) will drive us into World War III, and we’re closer to World War III than anybody can imagine,” Trump said.

Trump’s openness to using US firepower to help Israel in its offensive against Iran could be interpreted as a complete flip from his repeated promises to be more judicious with American firepower and focus on US interests before everything else.

At a National Guard conference in Detroit last August where he was endorsed by Tulsi Gabbard, an anti-war former Democratic member of Congress from Hawaii who is now his director of national intelligence, Trump said Democrats and Independents would vote for him in part because he would end wars.

“I am confident that his first task will be to do the work to walk us back from the brink of war,” Gabbard said at the same event, explaining her support for Trump. “We cannot be prosperous unless we are at peace.”

It was seen as an important shift in Republican foreign policy, as Trump veered away from the neoconservative school of thought that led the US into the war in Iraq, and from the post-World War II mindset that the US should help foster democracy around the world.

There is now a major rift brewing in the GOP over Iran. One example: Tucker Carlson, a major Trump backer in the conservative online media echo chamber, who opposes US involvement in Israel’s attacks, confronted Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican, during a combative interview posted to the social media platform X.

Trump’s peace promises have been difficult to achieve.

The war in Ukraine would be over, Trump promised at the debate, “before I take office on January 20th.”

The war is still far from over and Trump has expressed frustration at his inability to stop it. Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza also continues, despite Trump’s promise to quickly end it.

Trump argued at the debate that he would be more effective on the world stage than Biden because world leaders don’t respect the Democrat. “They don’t fear him. They have nothing going with this gentleman and he’s going to drive us into World War III.”

But Trump has been unable to persuade or pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into ending the war with Ukraine.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck Iran without Trump’s approval — though the administration was aware the move was coming — and now it is Trump moving toward Israel’s position rather than the other way around.

Instead of surrounding himself with people who would take the US into war, Trump promised a new kind of staff to build a much more powerful military that would keep wars from breaking out. “It will be again peace through strength,” he said at the National Guard conference. Yet his current position on Iran aligns more with old school Republicans who did not shy away from using American military might.

Trump spoke frequently on the campaign trail about the need to avert World War III, something he said he could achieve. Perhaps joining Israel in its effort against Iran, if that’s what Trump ultimately decides to do, will be a step in that direction. But he did not mention such detours during the campaign.

“I could have been in a mess like you have right now,” Trump said alongside Gabbard. “You have every place, the whole world is blowing up. Yes, World War III if something doesn’t happen fast. And that’s going to be a world war like no others because of nuclear power and other power that’s out there.”

Promising peace is something that extended into Trump’s inaugural address.

“We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into,” he said.

Now Trump is using the language of war, demanding “unconditional surrender” from Iran in social media posts even though the US and Iran are not technically at war and Trump still says he wants Iran to come to the negotiating table.

Iran could still obviously negotiate an end to Israel’s attack, which is happening with more and more support from the US. Trump is still weighing whether that support will include military force.

For now, he is not acting as a unifier, though that’s what he promised Americans in his second inaugural.

“That’s what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier,” he said. His time in office so far has not, at least not yet, been the era of peace.