Trump now must focus on diplomacy

President Donald Trump and top aides, in a news conference Monday, hailed and highlighted the dramatic military rescues of two airmen from a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter shot down over Iran Friday. Trump took the moment to proclaim it as “one of the largest, most complex, most harrowing” such operations ever conducted by American forces. He and Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth gave a palpable chronology pockmarked with triumphant comparisons to a Hollywood film.

The president said the intense and complex special operation involved “hundreds of troops” and 155 aircraft and it surely was a sign of military competence and determination in a war of choice. More encouraging, however, during a give and take with the press was the president’s later hint of a path to a peace agreement. While Trump is still threatening a merciless bombardment of bridges and power plants across the Islamic republic if the nation’s surviving leadership doesn’t agree to American terms, his tone notably has shifted.

The profanity-laced social media message on Easter Sunday demanding that Iran open the Strait of Hormuz “or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah,” gave way to an indication that he was at least taking diplomacy seriously. Of the Islamic Republic he said: “I can tell you they’re negotiating, we think in good faith” and that “we’re getting the help of some incredible countries that want this to be ended because it affects them also.”

Confronted with his contradiction of declaring victory and vowing to rain down carnage, Trump said “I have the best plan of all but I’m not going to tell you what my plan is . . . We have regime change. . . . I think they’re sharper and far less radical.” Which might be a cryptic way of saying he thinks his threats will cow the Iranians into opening up the commerce that it has cut off. He cited the danger of Iran mining the Persian Gulf to harm commercial ships and personnel.

Trump has self-protective reasons to deal his way out of this war which he launched more than a month ago despite campaign vows to do no such thing. Polling last week showed his approval ratings hitting new lows on foreign policy as well as the economy and inflation.

Clearly a loss of support concerns him as his Republican Party faces growing disapproval in the November elections. As if in bitter response, Trump resorted to familiar rally-style bellowing about how he could jail news media who accurately reported inside information about survivors soon after the fighter jet was shot down.

Strikes continued across the region Monday. Hopefully Trump’s public statements serve the perception he seeks: meaningful goals were accomplished and therefore any ceasefire or peace deal is a product of strength, not backing down. If diplomacy triumphs soon, the president can take some kind of credit for halting the death and destruction and moving toward more stability in the Middle East.