President Trump’s unconventional approach to foreign policy shows no signs of reverting to the mean. Reports that the administration has opened direct talks with Hamas were followed quickly by a meeting at the Oval Office between Mr. Trump and freed Israeli hostages. Then came a dispatch on Truth Social where the president declared “‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye  — You can choose.”

That choice, Mr. Trump explained, boils down to releasing every hostage, dead and alive, immediately or “it is OVER for you.” He vowed that he is “sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job” and that “not a single Hamas member will be safe.” The 47th president ventured to the terror group that “only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted.” He beckoned the Palestinian Arabs to a “beautiful Future” if they quit Gaza.

Mr. Trump is in the habit of saying hello and goodbye to policy experiments, and the ones that have formed around Israel and its Arab environs are the hoariest of all. The catechisms whereby Israel is blamed for the aggression directed against it, land is seen as tradeable for peace, and two states are envisioned as feasible — all have miserable track records, notwithstanding their support among foreign policy wise men and women.

When the 47th president was the 45th one he took a wrecking ball to the conventional wisdom, with constructive results. First he moved America’s embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. That relocation was mandated by Congress that successive presidents had delayed through dawdling and waivers. He recognized Israel sovereignty on the Golan, and began a peace process that resulted in the Abraham Accords, establishing relations  between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors. 

Fast forward to Mr. Trump’s second term. His plans for a so-called “Mar-a-Gaza” elicited howls of outrage. Yet it is the first fresh thinking we’ve seen in years in respect of the future of the terrorist enclave. Mr. Trump’s AI video illustrating the plan likewise precipitated pearl-clutching among those who don’t lose a wink of sleep over Hamas holding a territory that it has transformed into a cross between a caliphate and a medieval torture dungeon.

Now comes Mr. Trump to warn Hamas to, as he put it “RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER.” Israel is engaged in a wrenching process of redeeming its captives in exchange for Hamas prisoners, many of whom are guilty of the most heinous crimes of murder and terrorism. That deal was originally conceived by the Biden administration, ever-fearful of escalation. Now Mr. Trump is taking the opposite tack.

The real test will be whatever comes next. We rather like President Teddy Roosevelt’s formulation about speaking softly and carrying a big stick. No doubt there are times that call for speaking loudly and carrying a big stick. What makes us uncomfortable is speaking loudly and carrying a small stick. With Mr. Trump’s latest declarations he has set up an opportunity to act.