“Trump: The Game” was introduced in 1989 by Milton Bradley Co. The sales pitch was: “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s whether you win!”

But like so many of Donald Trump’s ventures over the decades, this one had a flashy start but a weak finish. Its first year brought in less than half the expected sales. Even after it was reissued by Parker Brothers in 2004 with the tagline “You’re Fired!” sales lagged. It’s now just a collector’s item.

Trump has made a similarly bold start with his second term as president. His vast ambition was celebrated by two of my favorite columnists. Peggy Noonan wrote that after five dominating months, “He’s in the greatness game.” Walter Russell Mead observed that the omnipresent, power-hungry Trump, as was said of Theodore Roosevelt, “wants to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding, and the baby at every christening.”

But the downside of that distinguishing Trump feature is becoming clear: For all his flamboyant beginnings, he has trouble getting across the finish line. As was true throughout his business career, he makes big showy bets — often emblazoned with his personal brand — but can’t bring some of them to successful conclusions. Trump’s boldness and bravura are genuinely impressive. But they aren’t enough.

Even Trump’s seeming victories can be Pyrrhic. That might be true with the budget monstrosity he branded the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Even if it wins final passage in the House this week, “success” will come at such a severe political cost that both chambers could be up for grabs in the 2026 midterms — not to mention the suffering of people who won’t get Medicaid or food-stamp benefits so that Trump can extend his tax breaks.

Don’t start something you cannot finish. The clearest recent example of that dictum is Trump’s intervention in Israel’s war with Iran. Sending B-2 bombers to attack Iranian nuclear bunkers was meant to deliver on Trump’s promise that Iran won’t get a nuclear weapon. It was an audacious use of American military power and, in that sense, it bolstered U.S. credibility and deterrence.

But it didn’t solve the Iran nuclear problem. As the previous three presidents (all of whom studied the bunker-buster strategy carefully) could have told Trump, bombing will delay the Iranian program. But you need a verifiable agreement enforced by the International Atomic Energy Agency to halt it.

In April, Trump appeared to understand that he needed a diplomatic strategy with Iran. He began negotiations (to Israel’s dismay) but grew impatient. Israel attacked last month and was soon winning in the skies over Tehran. Trump clearly wanted to be a winner, too, so he launched the B-2s as well as a week of semantic games over how much damage they did. But he doesn’t yet have a diplomatic pathway to ensuring a nonnuclear Iran.

What’s the outcome? At this writing, it appears Israel will adopt what Defense Minister Israel Katz called “a policy of enforcement.” Which means that every few months or years, Israeli jets, perhaps accompanied by U.S. bombers, will destroy any renewed Iranian nuclear activity. It’s like the strategy that Israel adopted for two decades toward Hamas in Gaza, which came to be known as “mowing the grass.” How did that work out?

Trump’s tariff war is another big, bold start that, so far, has come up short. Trump launched his tariff binge in April with a grandiose slogan (“Liberation Day!”). It produced so much uproar on Wall Street that he delayed implementation — promising that he would complete 90 deals by July 9. That’s a week away, and most major trade deals remain unfinished.

Faithful allies in Japan and Europe are trying to get to yes. They fear that high tariffs will mean slower growth and rising inflation, just as we should. But trade deals — like nuclear agreements — take many months to negotiate. The Trump team appears to lack the patience and the bandwidth for such negotiations.

The Ukraine war is the most troubling example of Trump’s poor follow-through. He was absolutely right that it was time to end this “bloodbath,” as he called it. He began the negotiations with much fanfare. But when they got bogged down because of Russia’s refusal to compromise, Trump ducked any real bargaining. He threatened sanctions against Moscow repeatedly but so far has done nothing. Meanwhile the death and destruction in Ukraine goes on. Let’s pray he gets serious soon.

Part of good leadership is understanding your limits. Trump is unquestionably a brilliant marketer and disrupter. He has often employed threats and brinkmanship to escape bad business deals — and he’s using that tactic now against politicians who stand in his way, at home and abroad.

But presidents don’t get credit for starting things. They win praise and popularity — “greatness,” as Noonan put it — by completing them. To put it simply: Nobody wants to live in an abandoned, half-finished skyscraper — no matter how glittering the front lobby.