Donald Trump has once again stepped back from the brink, extending the ceasefire with Iran after days of hardline rhetoric. Critics are already deriding the move as another example of “TACO”—“Trump always chickens out”—pointing to how quickly a self-imposed red line was abandoned after warnings that there would be “no more Mr. Nice Guy” if Tehran refused to yield. But that mockery misses the more important point. A president choosing restraint over escalation—even after bluster—is far less troubling than one who would press ahead with a potentially disastrous conflict simply to maintain an image of toughness, regardless of the cost in American and Iranian lives.

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