Trump's Peace Push Stalls as Ukraine and Gaza Conflicts Escalate Despite Diplomatic Efforts

A month after he sat down with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, President Donald Trump is still talking like a man surprised by the result. "He's let me down," Trump said this week. "He really let me down." The summit did not produce peace in Ukraine, and the war goes on.

The Middle East offers no relief. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is starting a new offensive in Gaza City and striking well beyond Gaza. When Israel targeted Hamas officials inside Qatar, a U.S. ally that has been hosting diplomatic negotiations, Trump's response was that Israel has to be "very, very careful." The tone is a long way from the dominance he usually projects, particularly while he promotes his diplomacy and campaigns for the Nobel Peace Prize. Asked what he wants from the upcoming U.N. General Assembly, he answered "world peace." The two most prominent conflicts he has taken on are escalating rather than winding down.

Max Bergmann, a State Department official under Barack Obama who now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, called the past nine months of peace efforts "a merry-go-round." Trump prizes bold gestures, he noted, such as a stealth bomber strike in Iran or a sweeping tariff announcement, but peace agreements are another matter. Bergmann argued that Trump has not surrounded himself with experienced diplomats and foreign policy specialists, and compared it to being told to "go do a hotel deal" without the expertise: a terrible deal, and a lot of money lost.

The White House points to European leaders who have praised Trump's efforts, and Trump often says he hires "only the best people." Matt Kroenig, a senior Pentagon policy adviser in Trump's first term, credits the president's brashness with some results, such as his demand that European allies spend more on defense. But Kroenig also recalled how Trump spun his wheels and eventually gave up when he tried to persuade Kim Jong Un to end North Korea's nuclear program. On Ukraine and Gaza, Kroenig asked, "At what point does he say, 'This is too hard, let's move on to other issues.'"

The structure around the president matters too. Foreign policy usually runs through extensive coordination among agencies by way of the National Security Council. Trump has sharply cut that council's staff, and Marco Rubio is both secretary of state and national security adviser. "It's one person setting the strategy and everyone else is waiting to see," Kroenig said.

In the Middle East, Trump has courted Arab states, visiting several this year including Qatar, while also backing Israel's military operations in Gaza and Iran. Israel, emboldened by its battlefield success, is now striking more widely across the region. The attack in Qatar jeopardized negotiations Washington has been trying to advance and shook Arab leaders' confidence in Trump's ability to influence Netanyahu, let alone restrain him. According to three Arab diplomats familiar with conversations at the last Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Doha, some leaders now see Israel rather than Iran as their main security threat. They spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss private talks. It marks a shift from Trump's first term, when Israel and Arab nations grew closer and he championed the Abraham Accords.

U.S. officials have tried to calm those doubts by pointing to Trump's stated displeasure with Netanyahu's latest moves, recent meetings with Qatar's prime minister, and talk of enhanced security arrangements. Still, Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff can expect a chorus of criticism at next week's General Assembly. Washington has long sought to preserve Israel's military edge over its Arab neighbors, but Israel hit Qatar with U.S.-supplied weapons, and Qatar's own U.S.-supplied defenses could not counter the strike. Arab diplomats are weighing whether to demand stronger support from the U.S. That would likely be politically untenable for now, given strong backing for Israel among the Republicans who control Congress.

In Europe, Trump has frustrated critics with an equivocal posture toward Putin, at times suggesting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is as responsible as Moscow for a war that began with Russia's 2022 invasion. He insisted the Alaska meeting "accomplished a lot" but added that "it takes two to tango," describing Zelenskyy and Putin as two people who hate each other. Fears of spillover have grown after Russian incursions into the airspace of NATO members Poland and Estonia. After three Russian fighter jets entered Estonian airspace on Friday, Trump said it could mean "big trouble."

At a news conference in the United Kingdom during his state visit, Trump said he was dedicated to stopping the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Then he added: "You never know in war. You know, war is a different thing. Things happen that are very opposite of what you thought." The General Assembly next week is the next test of whether Washington can answer its critics.