Winners or Losers: Donald Trump’s Brutal Rules of the Game

Trump built his first year on quick and impressive victories, and Netanyahu was a central partner in the vision, but endless wars have worn down the alliance of interests, and Israel is becoming, in the president’s eyes, a liability rather than an asset. Commentary by Prof. Yossi Shain, N12. Published: 10.06.26, 13:42 | Updated: 11.06.26, 12:31

The promised victory did not arrive, and the bill is landing on Israel (archive) | Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images, Getty Images

In every election campaign he ran, and even after being elected president in 2024, Donald Trump shouted before crowds of supporters, “America is winning again, we are winning and we will keep winning until you are sick of winning.” Trump likes to win, inflate achievements and boast. Losing is not for him. He always seeks a “real victory” quickly, and if not, he will settle for words, minimizing losses and creating an appearance. This week Trump came to the Knicks’ finals game in New York, he smelled a victory there. New Yorkers will have to wait. This week he also said that soon he would announce a “total victory” in Iran.

America’s winning motto reflects Trump’s approach to life, in business, politics, media and international relations. Trump distinguishes between “winners and losers” as moral categories of good and evil, victories for him embody the capitalist ethos and the American dream. He despises “losers” who sold America “cheaply.” He despises Obama, Biden and Kamala, the “whiny left,” the whiny, victimhood-driven crowd, decadent Europe, and the international “losers” under a humanitarian guise, and all those who do not give “respect” to the great winner. Zelensky, too, was about to become a loser if he did not show respect.

Quick victory became the highlight of Trump’s first year in the White House in his second term. The peak of the victories, in his view, was the closing of the borders to immigrants, the American bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025, and the abduction of President Maduro in Venezuela. Trump also delivered major wins in tariff policy, in the release of the Israeli hostages from Hamas captivity, and in “making eight peace agreements” around the world, as the president claimed. “We made historic agreements that were not achieved for 3,000 years,” Trump said about the Gaza peace force.

For Trump, winning as an empire means subordinating other countries and humiliating weak leaders. President Macron in France and Keir Starmer in England have become objects of ridicule for him. Winning means receiving respect. And when he faces determined leaders who are not afraid, Trump usually takes a step back. He does not want long battles, so former enemies can quickly become friends. There are no sentiments, if you cannot beat them, join them.

Trump’s alliance with Israel rests on the idea of winning. Liberal Jews in the United States are “weaklings,” while Israel is a winning power, Trump thought. Israel, after the fiasco of October 7, needed a great winning patron, and Trump took the job of protecting us and bringing more victories and honor to himself. Yes, he always likes to appropriate achievements that are not his, as we saw in the war in June 2025.

At the start of his second term, Netanyahu became a partner in the vision of victories. Netanyahu would become a victorious vassal and do everything the president told him on the way to “total victory.” Israel’s persistence and the release of the hostages gave Trump the status of a “Cyrus” among Jews. Trump also believed the IDF had the capability to work “miracles” with Israel’s outstanding pilots and Mossad intelligence, as in the pager explosion operation. Therefore, winning in cooperation with Israel and Netanyahu, the “war prime minister,” is a good formula for boosting the president’s standing.

The language of “winning” quickly also appealed to Trump in relation to the Iranian leadership. Mossad and Israeli pilots would eliminate the leadership and bring about regime change. Trump, who told protesters in Tehran that he was coming, would cut a huge and quick historical victory ribbon, “five or six weeks maximum,” the president said.

Trump’s wars were always presented by Secretary of War Hegseth as different from the historical American defeatism of “never ending wars.” The first days of the Lion’s Roar war were indeed intoxicating, the empire struck the Iranians alongside its winning partner from Jerusalem, and, according to Trump, it was only a matter of time before “total surrender” and a changed world order. All the “loser” presidents in the United States, led by Obama, did not bring about the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, Trump was supposed to do that.

But war always has surprises. The blockage in the Strait of Hormuz, and especially the downing of the American aircraft and the rescue of the two pilots in a heroic operation, signaled to Trump that everything could collapse in an instant. Trump fears the loser image and has begun to change course. “Maybe Netanyahu is not a winner,” some of his aides said. And maybe it is possible to reach an agreement that will create the appearance of a great victory?

Trump now fears that Netanyahu is dragging him into endless wars, entangling himself and Trump, and gradually moving away. Could Netanyahu have become a burden that needs to be restrained? “Israel is hated all over the world,” the president said in the shouting match with Netanyahu. “In the end you will be left alone.”

Netanyahu still believes in force, but is becoming hated in the United States. “Without me,” Trump said, “Israel would not exist.” Trump is not one to dwell on the Holocaust and antisemitism. It is not good for him to portray Israel as a victim, to turn it into a loser. His friends in the MAGA movement explain to him that he is being dragged by Netanyahu into defeats at home, and the message is sinking in.

Are we heading toward a major shift and an enforced retreat wrapped in the words “total victory”? Will Trump act to decide the matter because of Iranian mistakes such as the downing of the helicopter? Will we find a quick exit that gives Trump a victory card? Israel has no way today to give Trump a victory card. We are trapped.

>>> Prof. Yossi Shain is an expert in political science and international relations, who served as head of the School of Political Science at Tel Aviv University. Faculty member at Georgetown University in Washington, DC