‘Always a peacemaker’: How Trump decided to hold off on striking Iran

Trump spent the last week alternating between threats issued on social media and private concerns that a strike he orders could drag the US into prolonged war.

By most accounts, President Donald Trump’s attention for the past week has been consumed by the spiraling crisis playing out between Israel and Iran. In between meetings in Canada on Monday, he peppered aides for constant updates. He has spent more time in the basement Situation Room this week than at any point so far in his new presidency. So it was somewhat jarring Wednesday when the president emerged from the South Portico — not to provide an update on his crisis consultations, but to oversee the installation of two nearly 100-foot flagpoles. “These are the best poles anywhere in the country, or in the world, actually. They’re tapered. They have the nice top,” the president told a clutch of reporters and workmen. “It’s a very exciting project to me.” The break from his Iran meetings lasted about an hour, a moment for the president to literally touch grass on the South Lawn amid the most consequential period of decision-making of his term so far. A day later, the president decided not to decide. He dictated a statement to his press secretary Karoline Leavitt announcing he would hold off ordering a strike on Iran for up to two weeks to see if a diplomatic resolution was possible.