Trump promised to end America's wars, instead it's acting like rogue superpower

Albeit for the wrong reasons, no one could deny that Donald Trump is an extraordinary US president. His disregard for the US Constitution and due process, the multi-billion-dollar grift, the vulgar, petty insults, and the abuse of longstanding allies are clearly not normal.

- MICHAEL DAY

Yet in one important respect, the American presidency under Trump is reverting to type. The overnight bombing raids in Syria against Isis, following an ambush that killed two US soldiers in the city of Palmyra last month, are merely the latest sign.

In recent weeks, Trump has also attacked Islamic militants in Nigeria in retribution for assaults on Christians, ordered the abduction of Venezuela's head of state, Nicolás Maduro, and escalated his threats against Denmark and Greenland.

America is once again throwing its weight around – threatening and bombing weaker nations with impunity. Nigeria and Syria are not even within Trump's claimed western hemisphere stamping ground.

Neither is Iran, which could yet be his next target. Trump may have developed a taste for overseas shows of force after ordering the assassination of the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani at the end of his first term in January 2020.

This is a striking reversal for a man elected in 2016 on a promise to end America's “forever wars” and gung-ho interventions in far-flung places. That pledge was wildly popular among millions of Americans who had watched their compatriots return home in body bags for reasons they could barely comprehend.

Once in power, however, Trump's desire to disengage from foreign conflicts was expressed through a series of ill-thought-out and deeply irresponsible policies.