To the surprise of some, Trump has been an energetic actor on the world stage. The latest example: he began the New Year by arresting the President of Venezuela and promising to “run” the Latin American country. Elsewhere, in 2025, he helped to weaken an Iranian regime that threatened its neighbors. In one of the two major conflicts that have dominated the world stage this decade, he architected a cease-fire, with an eye toward ending major hostilities between Israel and Hamas. At the time of writing, he is trying to copy this approach to solve another intractable conflict, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ironically, some of the very sort of behaviors that rub the traditional Davos crowd the wrong way made these achievements possible.