The Question for Donald Trump

Susan Estrich on Jun 21, 2025

To bomb or not to bomb.

That is the question.

And the answer is: he'll decide "within the next two weeks."

Why two weeks?

Because with President Donald Trump, "two weeks" could mean almost anything.

Asked two months ago if he could trust Russian President Vladimir Putin, he replied "I'll let you know in two weeks." Still waiting?

Asked about his tax plans, his health care policies, infrastructure plans, the details or evidence of conspiracy theories he credited, his answer has always been the same: "two weeks."

Within two weeks means not today. It means I'm ducking, don't know, haven't decided, am hoping it will go away.

Does he really think Iran is going to abandon its long-term strategy of delay and defiance in two weeks?

Is he setting a two-week limit for diplomacy that he really intends to enforce?

Is he listening to the last person he talks to, working for time to address the crevice opening up in the MAGA crowd (don't forget that Steve Bannon, no hawk he, was lunching at the White House on Thursday)?

"Trump TACOs for Two Weeks," the headline in Drudge screams.

There are at least two Donald Trumps that we know of.

One, the man of military parades and sending the Marines to Los Angeles, who no doubt wants to go down in history as the bold warrior who de-nuked Iran.

The other is the leader of the America First, isolationist wing of the Republican Party, the one who is willing to abandon our allies and make peace with our adversary, to keep us out of foreign wars.

Which Donald Trump will stand up? Or neither?

A reporter in the White House briefing asked Trump's press secretary: "President Trump has said previously, in regard to Russia, he's used the phrase 'about two weeks' several times, in terms of, like, 'We expect a two week deadline,' and then he'll give another two week deadline. How can we be sure he's going to stick to this one on making a decision on Iran?" Karoline Leavitt responded that the two were not comparable. She did not explain why.

CNN did a quick video survey of Republican senators, all of whom were giving their equivalent of the "two weeks" answer: "I trust the president." One after another, they ducked and covered. For now.

That's my problem. They trust the president, or at least they say they do (based on how he listened to their point of view, being the last person he talked to, at that point).

I don't.

Obviously, there is much about this crisis that the president and his team know and you and I probably don't, and can't, know. In wartimes and times of crisis, there is usually a strong national instinct to unite around a leader, to come together and be led, sometimes too easily.

This much we already know. There is no such national instinct right now. We are as divided politically as we have ever been in my lifetime, and it is a very personal, very passionate divide. And that includes divisions in both parties on Israel and isolationism, not to mention the likelihood of triggering a much broader war.

No one can predict what crises will define a presidency. Trump thought it all would be easier than it turns out to be, that the force of his personality would actually change Putin's stripes, that he could bully the world to do his bidding, that he really could build a Trump Tower on a Gaza beachhead. He's gotten more than he should have from a Republican Congress that was cowed and is now terrified. There are hard issues that require hard calls. This one may define Donald Trump.

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.