Bob Beck's Foreign Policy Blog

On the afternoon of August 22 at a White House ceremony, the US president wore an unsavory red hat emblazoned with “Trump Was Right About Everything.” Aside from the sartorial incongruence of presiding over an official event at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in a hat better suited for a fishing derby or dollar beer night at the corner bar, Trump’s headgear bravado merits pushback, at least in this observer’s area of focus, foreign policy. 

One must go no further than the total disconnect between the president’s early rhetoric about the Russia-Ukraine war and the tragic reality of what has transpired since he took office. Far from resolving the crisis in 24 hours or two days or any of the other fantasy timelines offered by our commander in chief, the war grinds on inexorably. Putin the would-be conqueror has repaid Trump’s fawning peace overtures and discrepant messaging with increased massive airstrikes on civilian targets across Ukraine. 

While there has been a lot of movement of late with respect to summits and US/Europe meetings and cautiously optimistic statements, Trump’s stop and start approach to the crisis has resembled the geopolitical version of an animal chasing its tail. Our fearless leader’s efforts with respect to the ongoing bloodshed in Ukraine have been a cautionary tale of substituting motion for progress. 

Remember all the buzz about the United States annexing Canada as our 51st state and acquiring Greenland, either diplomatically or, if necessary, by force? The vacuous bluster, much like his early tommyrot about Ukraine, has come to nothing. In essence, despite a high profile, “wave the flag” March 2025 visit to Greenland by Vice President J.D. Vance, the early chest-thumping about our northern neighbors has proven to be simply a hollow publicity stunt.. 

Switching to Northeast Asia, Trump stated in a cabinet meeting on July 8, 2025, that “you know, we have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea.” In reality, per official Department of Defense statistics, America’s current military footprint in the country is just over 26,000 troops. Where Trump’s number came from is anyone’s guess, but it was emphatically false. It is also unlikely that any of the president’s top aides mustered the professional and ethical courage to correct the gaff. 

In another egregious boast, President Trump recently referred to himself as a “war hero,” concurrently affording the same approbation to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Regarding the latter, many would argue that one man’s war hero is another man’s war criminal. While Trump may praise the Israeli leader for his ongoing scorched earth policy in the Gaza strip, much of the rest of the world takes a decidedly more pessimistic view of the merits of the continuing violence.

As for Trump being a “war hero,” tennis great John McEnroe’s classic “you cannot be serious” rant seems to be the most appropriate response. President George H.W. Bush was a war hero; ditto for the late Senator John McCain. Donald Trump? Not a snowball’s chance in the nether regions. 

Heroism in war implies putting one’s life on the line in the heat of battle in defense of your country and your fellow service members. Trump ordered a very limited airstrike on Iranian nuclear facilities after the Israeli Air Force had already done the hard part, wiping out the local air defense threat. By any objective measure, Trump’s self-assessment holds no water and, worse, devalues the term for those truly deserving. 

The long and short of this is that words do matter. When our leaders normalize fabrications and counterfactual statements, the verifiable truth starts to get lost in the process. Whether this is a conscious effort on the part of our 47th president or just a recurring symptom of his incurable case of the “look at me” disease, the effect on our citizenry, allies, and adversaries is the same. They have no faith in what he says or writes, with truth becoming a subjective concept, malleable to the mercurial whims of just one man. 

Welcome to the state of altered reality that is Trump 2.0.