In the theatre of global diplomacy, Donald Trump cast himself as the ultimate dealmaker, vowing in his second inaugural address to be remembered as a “peacemaker and unifier" who would end wars and restore harmony to a chaotic world. It was a sweeping promise, echoing his first-term theatrics—the Abraham Accords, his North Korea summits—but with higher stakes. Ukraine, Gaza, and South Asia were supposed to yield to his force of personality.

Nine months in, the reality is stark: Trump’s peace missions are not merely faltering but collapsing, exposing bluster in place of strategy and leaving allies alienated while adversaries advance.

The clearest indictment comes from Ukraine. Trump had pledged to end the war “on day one", leaning on his supposed stature to corral Putin. Instead, Russia expanded its offensive into Dnipropetrovsk, its first breakthrough there in three years. Trump’s counter? A volley of tariffs designed to punish Moscow’s lifelines. But the hammer fell on India, which has bought nearly 40% of its crude from Russia since the war began, saving $17 billion and stabilizing global prices.

In July, Trump slapped a 25% tariff on Indian exports, doubling it a month later. “India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian oil," he fumed, adding, “They are then selling it on the open market for big profits." The duties, covering everything from textiles to pharmaceuticals, threatened $37 billion in exports. But India didn’t blink. Prime Minister Narendra Modi blasted the tariffs as “unjustified," rallied citizens to “buy only Indian goods", and watched imports of Russian crude rise to 1.75 million barrels a day. Reliance refineries kept exporting, even to U.S. buyers.

The blowback is real: economists warn of U.S. GDP losses and inflationary shocks, while Putin flaunts Eurasian solidarity at summits with Xi and Modi. Trump’s tariffs, meant to isolate Moscow, have instead pushed allies closer to it.

Trump’s economic arm-twisting in Ukraine reveals a deeper flaw: his obsession with unilateral levers ignores the web of global........

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