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Analysis

Israel tests Trump’s promise to keep US out of new wars

The president who said he would bring peace to the Middle East now has another war unfolding on his watch. 

The President will attend the annual meeting of the Group of 7 nations, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States are taking place in the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Alberta, and will run until late Tuesday. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump stops and talks to the media before he boards Marine One on the South Lawn at the White House on June 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. — Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

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WASHINGTON — As Israel and Iran trade fire for the sixth day, President Donald Trump faces perhaps the biggest decision yet of his second term: whether to plunge the United States directly into the war by authorizing strikes that could sharply escalate the conflict. 

"I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do," Trump told reporters on Wednesday when asked about possible US strikes on Iran.

Trump said that despite previously refusing direct negotiations with his administration, Iranian officials have now suggested meeting at the White House. The Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York issued a swift denial that its leadership ever asked "to grovel at the gates of the White House." 

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