Farm workers gather produce on Thursday, June 12, 2025, in Moorpark, Calif.

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Sunday, June 15, 2025.

Farm workers move quickly in the early morning hours to harvest grapes from the vines of a vineyard owned by Beckstoffer Vineyards in Napa, California.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, back right, directs President Donald Trump off stage after officially welcoming him to the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, Monday, June 16, 2025.

I was wrong about President Donald Trump, in more ways than one.

A column I wrote a month ago theorized that our president was a peacenik. He evaded the draft to avoid the Vietnam War, and he denounced armed conflict in forceful and emotional language. He campaigned on avoiding foreign military entanglements.

I praised Trump last month for rejecting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to bomb Iran. Today, though, I suspect the White House performed a diplomatic feint to encourage Iranian complacency.

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Israel has the right to exist and defend itself. The Hamas attack on Oct. 7 was cruel and criminal. Iran’s support for attacks on Israel by proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen is unacceptable.

Yet none of that justifies Israel’s overreaction and collective punishment of civilians. Of all people, Trump should know that establishing military dominance through superior technology is easy. Negotiating a lasting peace afterward can take generations.

If Trump were a peacenik, he would........

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