tough-minded

Mr. Khan, known as a gifted speaker and a tough-minded litigator, took an unusual approach to announcing his request for arrest warrants for leaders of Hamas and Israel.

When his business faltered, Trump became a reality television star on “ The Apprentice,” a show that portrayed him as the ideal tough-minded businessman, an image he rode into the White House in 2016.

Once it becomes apparent that this droll, tough-minded actress is playing a tomato who wants little more from life than a few trash novels and a jogging partner, confusion set in.

No matter how tough-minded you are, being in the midst of a jeering crowd that hates truth more than anything is not amendable to any kind of fact-checking.

How does a person whom Time called "a tough-minded man who has long shown an abundance of intellectual and physical resiliency" wind up on a window ledge?