It is another to conclude, as Trump apparently has, that the president’s powers of coercion are so great that he need not make more than a token effort at persuasion. Yet before going to war with Iran, Trump made virtually no attempt to explain the action to the American public. For a long, long time, it had been degraded.”The ledger, she says, on Trump’s approach to international relations is unfinished. “In a broader sense we are seeing a reshaping that is taking place, across trade, across defense relationships and in some ways political alignments too. US Navy/ReutersAs in Iran, Trump’s approach also has left him vulnerable to asymmetric pushback at home.

Source: Egypt Independent March 22, 2026 15:19 UTC