Trump wields American strength to build alliances — and peace

President Donald Trump has often extolled the virtues of achieving peace through strength — and now he’s actually doing it.

In the last few weeks, Trump has re-adopted the successful foreign policy of his first term to consolidate an alliance of pro-American democracies more powerful, and more united, than the burgeoning axis of evil sowing chaos across the globe.

The results have already been superlative.

Israel gained air superiority over Iran, and the United States used that advantage to execute a daring mission targeting Tehran’s sinister nuclear program.

America’s NATO allies pledged to significantly increase their defense spending.

And on Monday, Trump ordered the Pentagon to resume sending weapons to the Ukrainians, who continue their fight for national survival against the invading Russians.

“We’re gonna send some more weapons. We have to,” explained Trump. “They have to be able to defend themselves.”

This world-changing string of interconnected successes represents a return to form for the commander-in-chief.

During his first White House tenure, Trump may not have spoken softly, but he wielded an enormous stick.

On his orders, the US military stripped ISIS of its territorial holdings and dispatched its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to hell.

He set the Iranian regime back on its heels, suffocating under crippling US sanctions and adrift after the death of terrorist-general Qassem Soleimani, whom Trump sent to join al-Baghdadi.

And despite his political opponents’ claims of “Russian collusion,” Vladimir Putin didn’t indulge his expansionist appetite until Trump left office.

The 45th president projected strength, and America’s enemies feared him as a result.

At the outset of Trump’s second term, though, he seemed to be flirting with isolationism.

He praised Putin, feuded with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, sought a misguided nuclear deal with Iran and appointed questionable characters to key national security positions.

Now all that appears to have been a passing phase.

After it became clear that Tehran was toying with Trump at the negotiating table, he took matters into his own hands — as he’s doing with Russia now.

“We get a lot of bulls–t thrown at us by Putin,” the president observed during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

Once again, Trump is recognizing America’s friends and its enemies for what they are — and making that reality the foundation of an assertive new pro-American alliance.

For too long, we’ve allowed partisan politics to distort domestic debates over the United States’ optimal foreign policy.

Factions both for and against Israel and Ukraine have gained significant footholds in both major parties, for strategically illogical reasons.

But any coherent American strategy must include support for both these allies as they grind down our adversaries, benefiting both themselves and us.

Why? Because America’s enemies have already banded together against us.

China, Russia and Iran have formed an unholy alliance, providing material support to one another as each undermines American interests across the globe.

Thwarting them requires the United States to form and maintain its own coalition of like-minded partners.

The case for doing so is more than theoretical. In fact, it’s already bearing fruit.

When Israel began its campaign to cripple the Iranian regime last month, Tehran looked to Moscow for assistance, only to be rebuffed.

Once the United States joined the fray and bombed the Iranians’ nuclear facilities, Putin condemned it, but took no action.

Surprise, surprise: Ukraine’s remarkably tenacious defensive campaign against the Russians has tied up Putin’s resources, preventing him from wreaking havoc elsewhere — and leaving Iran high and dry.

Contrary to the arguments of restrainers like Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby — who reportedly imposed the Ukraine-aid freeze now reversed by his boss — confronting an evil actor in one place doesn’t invite aggression from others elsewhere.

Quite the opposite: It deters such aggression — and sends a powerful signal to other countries around the globe that they’d be better off calling America, not Russia or China, a friend.

It’s exactly why a top Chinese official reportedly expressed concern last week that a rapid end to the Ukraine war would free Trump to turn his attention to China’s menace — a blow to Colby & Co.’s thesis that deserting Kyiv is in America’s best interest.

“We’ve seen President Trump’s recent messaging on Ukraine — and frankly, we’re impressed,” Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s right-hand man, told The Post Tuesday. “The clarity, the leadership, the determination — we truly appreciate it.”

Trump’s sage return to battle-tested foreign-policy principles after his ill-fated contemplation of a retreat from the world stage has yielded more than gratitude, though.

It is forging a safer, more prosperous, firmly pro-American 21st century.

Isaac Schorr is a staff writer at Mediaite.