It has always been hard to find any sort of ideological consistency in the president’s words or deeds, but he has been steadfast throughout his two terms in his opposition to war, and it seemed genuine. At the end of his first term, in 2020, he boasted that, “We are ending the era of endless wars.” And during his inauguration in January, he said his success would be measured “by the wars that we end — and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.”