It is the best of times; it is the worst of times. It is the age of greatness; it is the age of pettiness. It is the epoch of accountability; it is the epoch of corruption. It is the spring of freedom; it is the winter of oppression. In short, the current period is so far like that other described by novelist Charles Dickens (A.D. 1775) that “some of its noisiest authorities insist on its being received … in the superlative degree of comparison only.” Human nature has not changed, only the continent on which its most promulgated acts of heroism and folly are committed.

Today’s news offers a study in contrast, as President Donald Trump demonstrated the unofficial power his title bestows to influence world events through a simple comment or phone call. Yet, like an exuberant kindergartener, recently liberated from the constraints of training wheels, hurtles dangerously across the yard on only two wheels, Trump’s use of this splendid power shows a greater mastery of momentum than navigation.

This weekend, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) released Pastor Ezra Jin, one of the most prominent pastors jailed in its recent crackdown on Christian churches, after 266 days in prison. The CCP leveled vague charges about security against Jin but never produced any evidence of wrongdoing, except that he pastored a church outside the state’s smothering supervision.

Chinese officials reportedly told Jin, who has now joined his family in exile in the United States, that his release was intended “as a goodwill gesture coinciding with America’s Independence Day,” according to ChinaAid. Trump raised Jin’s situation directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to China in May.

Religious freedom advocates had urged Trump to raise Jin’s situation at the meeting, and Trump’s decision to do so has now achieved a diplomatic breakthrough. Notably, the United States does not enjoy any direct benefit from China’s release of Jin, a Chinese national. The episode extends a longstanding American tradition of selfless advocacy for timeless principles — in this case the principle of religious freedom.

“An American president has enormous ability to alter the outcomes of ongoing human rights abuses, just by bringing them up with foreign leaders and emphasizing, directly and firmly, that the U.S. government is watching,” remarked National Review’s Jim Geraghty. “Releasing an unjustly imprisoned figure is a relatively inexpensive way for an authoritarian regime to build goodwill,” but “Without Trump bringing up the issue to Xi, Pastor Ezra Jin would probably still be in prison today.”

Unfortunately, securing Jin’s release is only the first step up a long down escalator toward freeing prisoners of conscience, even in China alone. “While we celebrate Pastor Jin’s freedom,” said ChinaAid President and FRC Senior Fellow Bob Fu, “our hearts remain with the countless pastors including eight other jailed pastors and coworkers from Zion Church, priests, bishops, house church Christians, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, and other prisoners of conscience who remain unjustly imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party.”

“Religious freedom is a fundamental human right,” declared FRC President Tony Perkins, former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. “Eight other Zion Church pastors and members are still being held captive by the Chinese Communist Party. Please continue to pray for their release and for everyone enduring persecution for their faith.”

On Sunday, President Trump scored a second victory in a personal pressure campaign, although one with a much different character. Last Wednesday, Trump phoned FIFA President Gianni Infantino and urged him to review the suspension of Folarin Balogun, the leading goal-scorer for the U.S. men’s soccer team. On Sunday, FIFA reversed the suspension and announced Balogun would be able to play in America’s next match.

Balogun received a controversial red card in Team USA’s Wednesday victory against Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting in his ejection from the game and a one-match suspension. The penalty came after a lengthy video review showed that he accidentally cleated an opponent’s leg, a move for which other stars have not been penalized in this year’s World Cup. Team USA advanced to play Belgium in a knockout round Monday night and had no clear replacement for Balogun on its roster.

After Trump’s call, FIFA reversed its decision, citing a little-known provision (Article 27) to suspend his ban for 12 months. The provision was invoked to benefit Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo after he elbowed a player, which would have resulted in a three-game suspension and kept him off the field for the first two matches of the World Cup group stage. The last time the provision was invoked to allow a player ejected in the World Cup to play in the next match was in 1962, when it benefited Brazil.

After FIFA reversed the decision, Trump called Infantino again, telling him he had made the right decision. Trump also called U.S. soccer coach Mauricio Pochettino, wishing him luck in the game against Belgium.

Although the original red card was controversial, Trump actions to circumvent FIFA’s ordinary procedures with political pressure are just as controversial, if not more so. Naturally, the Belgian soccer federation was furious, saying it was “astonished by FIFA’s decision to declare suspended United States player Folarin Balogun eligible to play in the U.S.A.-Belgium match,” and accusing FIFA of acting directly contrary to its own stated regulations.

Belgium’s position found sympathy in other quarters. Norwegian coach Stale Solbakken called it a “bad, bad, bad, bad, bad decision that will hurt the World Cup.” He added, “I feel also sorry for the United States, because if they win, that will always hang in the balance for it.” Even the pro-Team USA Wall Street Journal admitted the plan “would go down as one of the most audacious in the 96-year history of the World Cup.”

The worst of it is how petty and self-serving this pressure campaign appears. A sports referee made a controversial call. So the president of the free world decided to get personally involved not once but twice, reportedly with input from several aides. Really? Even though Trump obviously could do something, how did this ever seem like an appropriate use of his time or political capital?

President Trump evidently felt like America’s World Cup fortunes were a source of national pride. But the men’s team has already had a more successful run than at any point in the past two decades. And everyone would readily grant that America’s global standing does not ultimately depend on a sporting event — much less on one that doesn’t even rank in the United States’ top three.

Unlike Trump’s pressure on China for Jin’s release, his pressure on FIFA to reverse Balogun’s suspension was entirely self-serving — and petty to boot.

Thus, the second Trump administration continues to be an era of highs and lows — a study in contrasts so vibrant they may as well be opposite superlatives. President Trump has restored to the United States enough greatness that powerful dictatorships free prisoners of conscience on demand. Yet the same White House will stoop to intervene over a soccer game. Still, by shining a spotlight on evil at home and abroad, President Trump has brought much-needed accountability. And so the tension lingers: is it the best of times? Is it the worst of times? Can it be both at once?