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<\/p>\nUS President Donald Trump did not equivocate in his first live address to Americans about the war in Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve beaten and completely decimated Iran,\u201d he said in a prime-time speech from the White House on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are decimated both militarily and economically and in every other way.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cTheir radar is 100% annihilated. We are unstoppable as a military force.\u201d<\/p>\n
His certitude is now colliding with the uncertainty of war.<\/p>\n
The American fighter jet that was shot down in Iran on Friday was a searing reminder of the dangers associated with war, prompting a search operation that resulted in the rescue of one crew member. <\/p>\n
Another US aircraft was hit by Iranian air defenses, Iranian state media reported, days after Trump said Iran had \u201cno anti-aircraft equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the Republican president, who did not appear in public Friday, the developments were the latest example of his triumphal characterization of the war appearing misplaced.<\/p>\n
While one crew member was rescued in Iran, the whereabouts of at least one other was unknown \u2014 marking a dramatic escalation since the war began nearly five weeks ago. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
He has expressed surprise at Iran’s moves to strike its Gulf neighbors. He has struggled to respond to Iran’s move largely shuttering the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global oil supplies and sending pump prices soaring in the United States. <\/p>\n
His overtures to world leaders to help him reopen the vital waterway have been rebuffed, with some allies waiting for the fighting to end before addressing that situation and others openly critical of a war that Trump chose to initiate.<\/p>\n
Trump has long relied on unyielding self-confidence to propel him through the worlds of business and politics, boasting during the 2016 campaign that \u201cI alone can fix it.\u201d <\/p>\n
That has often translated into a go-it-alone approach where only Trump has the answers in a chaotic world and dysfunctional Washington. <\/p>\n
This view of the presidency has justified his executive orders at home and tariffs that affect the global economy.<\/p>\n
World leaders are searching for ways to restore oil flows amid rare public criticism of the US president\u2019s handling of the war with Iran. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
But the war with Iran, which he undertook alongside Israel and without consulting other allies or Congress, has provided a test like almost nothing before. <\/p>\n
For Trump, it is no longer \u201cAmerica First\u201d but America alone, and he is the principal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can be the most assertive, aggressive president in the world but you don\u2019t control what happens overseas,\u201d said Julian Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton University.<\/p>\n
Some traditional allies speak out<\/p>\n
As the war enters its sixth week, that reality is becoming more apparent. <\/p>\n
Trump spent most of the first year of his second term using trade penalties as a weapon that would force other countries to bend to his will. <\/p>\n
Today, in a time of war, some traditional American allies are becoming more outspoken.<\/p>\n
French President Emmanuel Macron said this week that the United States \u201ccan hardly complain afterward that they are not being supported in an operation they chose to undertake alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several New Zealand church leaders and scholars are condemning the Trump administration\u2019s use of scripture to frame military action, calling it a betrayal of Christianity\u2019s message of peace and humility. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not our operation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has not budged from his refusal to be drawn into the war despite fierce criticism by Trump. <\/p>\n
France and the United Kingdom are leading efforts to reopen the strait once the fighting ends.<\/p>\n
At home, even some of Trump’s fellow Republicans are reinforcing the need to maintain strong international relationships. <\/p>\n
After the president threatened to withdraw from NATO this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Republican-South Dakota., said there were not enough votes in the Senate to support that.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Vahid Salemi\/AP)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got an awful lot of people who think that NATO is a very critical, incredibly successful post-World War II alliance,\u201d Thune said of past conversations among Republicans about the move. \u201cI think in the world today, you need allies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump made no mention of leaving NATO during his White House address.<\/p>\n
John Bolton, a first-term Trump national security adviser who has since become an adversary, said the current administration made a \u201cserious mistake\u201d by not consulting allies before going to war.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t build your coalition before the war, it\u2019s pretty tough to do it while you\u2019re in it,\u201d said Bolton, who pleaded not guilty last fall to federal charges accusing him of emailing classified information to family members and keeping top secret documents at his Maryland home.<\/p>\n
But he also cautioned European leaders against reflexively opposing Trump out of frustration with his lack of consultation. That, Bolton said, would be \u201cjuvenile and petulant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump on his own terms<\/p>\n
Trump’s penchant to work on his own terms is not limited to the war.<\/p>\n
Just this week, he said congressional approval of a ballroom he wants to build at the White House is \u201cnot necessary\u201d despite a judge’s ruling. He signed an executive order to create a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and to restrict mail-in voting.<\/p>\n
In a first for a sitting president, he appeared in the courtroom of the Supreme Court as his administration tried to defend an executive order restricting birthright citizenship.<\/p>\n
But as with the war, Trump’s go-it-alone strategy at home is also confronting limits.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court struck down his far-reaching tariff program. <\/p>\n
Democrats quickly challenged his voting executive order in court and, despite his courtroom presence, the justices seemed sceptical of his bid to dismantle the Constitution\u2019s provisions providing birthright citizenship.<\/p>\n
Then there is the uncertainty about the ballroom.<\/p>\n
During private comments at an Easter lunch at the White House this week, Trump \u2014 ever the builder \u2014 seemed to lament the constraints on his job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m such a king I can\u2019t get a ballroom approved,\u201d he said to laughter from an audience that included Cabinet members and religious leaders. <\/p>\n
“I\u2019m doing a lot. But I could be doing a lot more if I was a king.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump did not equivocate in his first live address to Americans about the war in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[65,42,5107,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-363980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-middle-east","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-north-america","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}