President Donald Trump returned to office promising to easily fix generationally intractable problems, from quickly brokering peace in Ukraine and the Middle East to overhauling the federal government and rewriting the global trade order.

But this week showed just how far he is from solving any of them.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ignored his calls for a ceasefire with Ukraine. Trump, after he spent months mocking former President Joe Biden’s efforts to rein in Israel’s military activity, had to cajole Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against a strike on Iran. Billionaire adviser Elon Musk is exiting his high-profile government reform post amid a swirl of stories about interpersonal fighting within the West Wing and his drug use — and a fraction of the touted savings to show for it.

The broadest blow may have come this week when the U.S. Court of International Trade found Trump could not use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to justify many of his tariffs, a shortcut Trump was hoping would allow him to negotiate quick deals without long investigations into other nations’ trade policies or turning some of the power over to Congress.

As of May 1, Trump was losing in 128 of the hundreds of lawsuits filed to stop his executive orders, with green lights from courts in 43 cases, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

He often complains that going through normal government procedures takes too long. When a court insisted he allow thousands of deportees due process to fight their removal, he lamented how long thousands of trials would take. Similarly, he bemoans that working with Congress on any variety of issues would become bogged down in bureaucratic and legislative briar patches.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt complained bitterly about judicial rulings that don’t go Trump’s way, noting that in his first term, the number of judicial injunctions against Trump’s policies “account for more than half of the injunctions issued in this country since 1963.” She added that in his current term, Trump has had more injunctions in a month than Biden had in three years.

“There is an effort by this administration to tackle these rogue judges and the injunctions and the blockades that we have faced in our broken judicial system in every case,” she said.

His trade policies are now causing whiplash for countries and businesses as the ruling is tied up in court. The White House has asked the Supreme Court to swiftly step in, even before an appellate court on Thursday temporarily allowed the tariffs to continue while they considered the case.

But rather than retreat, or redesign his policies to withstand — or even avoid — court challenges, Trump lashes out, complaining about judicial overreach and Biden policies while touting other actions.

“President Trump has quickly delivered on the promises he made on the campaign trail: Gas prices are down, the border is secure, migrant criminals are deported, and America is strong in the eyes of the world,” said Anna Kelly, the deputy White House press secretary.

Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, said Trump’s words about tariffs, the Middle East and Russia made him look “strong and powerful,” but that “now he’s facing reality, and he’s got to figure out how to get through this next period of time.”

Wars on 2 continents

With his tariff regime and immigration policies slowed, Trump is also frustrated by two wars he promised would be easy to resolve.

He has failed to secure the quick Ukraine peace deal he was hoping to wring out of a call Monday with Putin, with whom he is showing increasing irritation.

“I’m not happy with what Putin is doing,” Trump told reporters last weekend, adding he is considering new sanctions against Russia. The frustration is amplifying as Moscow is ramping up its attacks into Ukraine with some of the biggest strikes of the three-year war this month.

In the Middle East, Trump is attempting what many of his predecessors have tried and failed to do — secure a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Trump, a staunch defender of Israel, has seen both Netanyahu and Hamas ignore his entreaties to stop strikes or release Israeli hostages.

Tariffs and taxes

The tariff ruling is now raising questions about whether Trump’s tax bill, with tax cuts skewed toward the wealthy and spending reductions, will bring in enough revenue without the promised tariff revenue.

The House’s version of the tax and spending bill is headed to the Senate, where some Republicans are pressing for extensive changes. The bill includes a $4 trillion increase in the U.S. debt ceiling, adding urgency for Congress as the Treasury Department forecasts the U.S. otherwise could face a default as soon as August or September.

Trump has worked the phones, directly pleading with some lawmakers, to support some of his nominees and legislative efforts. He’s turned to social media and speeches to train criticism on GOP naysayers who could derail his tax cut legislation, deriding them as “grandstanders” that need to fall in line.

DOGE

As Trump works to get his tax bill enacted, Musk is leaving Trump’s inner circle to return to his private businesses, raising questions about the future of the Department of Government Efficiency effort he spearheaded. The savings turned out to be a fraction of what Musk predicted.

“He doesn’t understand the larger complexities that are at play, the historical complexities that are at play,” said Christina Greer, associate professor of political science at Fordham University, Lincoln Center. “And so we’ve seen time and time again that this is a president who creates a problem, creates a lot of hubub, then walks back from the problem and then says he solved the problem.”

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(With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy.)

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