Unable to win his foolish war against Iran, Donald Trump blames its consequences on Ukraine and uses the lie to justify ending sanctions against Russia, thereby extending that war as well. His diesel deal with the Kremlin is less about lowering gas prices for Americans and more about submitting to Vladimir Putin.

TORONTO—Earlier this year, when I first described the guiding principle of Donald Trump’s foreign policy as superpower suicide, it was already obvious that the US President’s war of whimsy against Iran was a strategic catastrophe. Five months on, this failure is all the more glaring. Worse, it has provided Trump with another pretext to reward Russia. Weakness has begotten more weakness.