Phone in hand, weapons at the ready, Trump must act on his instinct for drama

Calgary: In the third episode of Aaron Sorkin’s classic White House drama, The West Wing, rookie president Josiah Bartlet is tasked with responding to the downing of an American plane – carrying his new doctor and 57 other military healthcare workers – by the Syrian government.

New to the job and outraged by the unfairness of the world, Bartlet instinctively wants blood. He queries the virtue of a “proportional response” to the atrocity, suggesting instead that “we come back with total disaster”. Those around him urge a more cautious, business-as-usual approach.

President Donald Trump leaves Calgary for Washington.Credit: Getty Images

The analogy is far from perfect, but Donald Trump faces a not dissimilar quandary now, and perhaps the first genuine test of his second term as president.

Does he persist with diplomacy, even as the United States’ special ally Israel decides now is the time for action against Iran, and the Iranians rain down missiles on Israeli cities?

Or does he enter the fray by authorising the bombing of Fordow, Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment facility, a target that is understood to be beyond Israel’s military capabilities and could only be destroyed by advanced US weaponry?

To involve the US militarily would risk a great deal – the start of an all-out war, for one, as well as Trump’s own self-styled reputation as a peacemaker who keeps Americans out of global conflicts rather than fanning them.

Smoke rises on Monday after an Israeli strike on a building housing state-run television in Tehran.Credit: AP

In characteristic style, Trump is conducting his decision-making in full public view, broadcasting conflicting messages at rapid pace. Since Israel’s bombardment began last week, he has maintained there is still time and goodwill for Iran to “make a deal” to curb its enrichment program.

Several reports also indicate Trump was cold on, or even vetoed, Israel’s plans to seize a window of opportunity to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. His instinct here appears to be for de-escalation.

But his premature departure from the G7 world leaders’ summit in Canada gives another impression. And on social media, Trump’s language turned from optimistic to resigned.

“Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign,” he posted. “What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”

Trump poses for a photo at the G7 summit alongside (from left) French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, British PM Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.Credit: AP

This is a bit like asking New York to evacuate if JFK, Newark and LaGuardia airports were all out of action, but highway cameras showed lines of traffic streaming out of Tehran after Trump’s warning.

The president’s early G7 exit (which wasn’t so urgent that he had to miss the “family photo” and official dinner) was also accompanied by reports in friendly media that he had asked his National Security Council to convene in the White House Situation Room.

A cynic might think this is all about Trump giving the Iranians the impression he is about to strike, without necessarily being prepared to do so. An even greater cynic might think it is more about focusing the world’s attention on Trump and his power.

Either way, he will soon have to make a choice. Unlike the Josiah Bartlet of Aaron Sorkin’s creation, this is a president whose preoccupation is grand plans and optics, rather than substance. He talks big, whether it be a takeover of Greenland, making Canada the 51st state, or imposing record tariffs on America’s friends and foes.

Border police officers inspect a residential building in Petah Tikva, Israel, hit by a missile launched from Iran.Credit: AP

So often, these never advance beyond words. Or if they do, as with the China tariffs or pausing military aid to Ukraine, they don’t last long.

Trump badly wanted to play peacemaker between Russia and Ukraine, if only to teach us all a lesson about the “art of the deal”. He clearly wants a deal on Iran too, but unlike Russia-Ukraine, he cannot wipe his hands of this and say it is somebody else’s problem.

This time, Trump faces a real-world crisis with real-world, high-stakes consequences, one in which he must be closely involved.

It is an unnerving thought, but as the leaders of the world’s most powerful nations spend the night holed up on a mountainside in Alberta, their fate really rests with a man heading back to the bunker underneath his Washington home, phone in hand, weaponry at the ready, and instinct for drama undiminished.

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