President Donald Trump delivers remarks following the U.S. military airstrike against Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, West Palm Beach, Fla., January 3, 2020. (Tom Brenner/Reuters)

President Trump stated today that “Iran appears to be standing down” after its ineffective response attack to the United States’ killing of General Soleimani. Trump’s statement at the White House, so different from the inanities of social media, was restrained and confident.

It’s almost enough to lead me to think that Donald Trump has picked an intelligent red line with Iran and defended it ably. He has repeatedly said that those who would harm Americans would be punished severely. After a series of escalations, Iran crossed that red line by firing on and killing a U.S. contractor and injuring personnel. Trump took the dramatic move of killing the author of so much harassment: General Soleimani. It was a limited and proportionate response. By targeting not just a general, but one who was himself a policymaker and military entrepreneur of sorts, Trump targeted a man responsible for Iran’s decisions to escalate, not just some random recruit. Doing so reestablished American escalation dominance.


And now Trump is using Iran’s ineffective response to his action to confirm the reality of deescalation and invite more of it.

This is a nice change-up from Obama’s approach to his Syrian red line. Obama announced that the use of chemical weapons would invite the end of the Syrian regime. He then publicized that they had done so, and never followed through directly on his grave threats. And yet, Obama still managed to get American forces and American honor ensnared in Syria’s long civil war.

Now let us hope Trump can find the appropriate exit in his exit strategy.