Donald Trump thinks he’s running the world. Its ambition has no limits. But it also exudes a dangerous arrogance and raises a serious question: where will the planet go under the leadership of this chaotic and vindictive president?
Trump revealed his global domain plan in a new interview with. He said he got rid of the “corrupt types” and the investigations that limited his first term. “The second time, command the country and the world,” he added.
The president is trying to a massive and simultaneous transformation of life in the United States and the US -led global political and economic systems that guarantee Washington’s primacy since World War II. It is undoubtedly the most omnipresent world figure, after 100 tumultuous days since returning to the oval room. No one knows what will do next – neither the US allies nor their enemies. And in this inverted age of foreign policy, it is sometimes difficult to know who is who. From Moscow to New Delhi and from Gaza to Rome, Trump has his finger on all geopolitical trays.
Many foreigners may feel revulsion for the president. But they can’t ignore him. This should know especially a commander-in-chief whose entire life was a search for notoriety.
There is some truth in Trump’s ostentation
The reality of the US global role means that those who occupy the highest position has immense authority, says Majda Ruge, senior researcher of the United States Program on the European Council of External Relations.
“See the case of Ukraine, which is on the borders of the European Union-it is practically a European matter, but the truth is that without intelligence, military support and nuclear dissuasion of the US, Europeans cannot continue to support Ukraine to the level needed for her to advance on the battlefield,” Ruge says, from Brussels, adding: “Returning to the phrase” I command the world. of the huge US impact on politics and international relations ”.
“But the question is: he [Trump] Are you really driving it in a constructive direction, or in a disruptive and chaotic direction? And secondly, is it even acting strategically to reach the destination you want? ”
Trump’s supporters argue that the traditional approaches to American foreign policy have brought only humiliation. They remember the two lost wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and think Europe has built swollen social states under the generous US military umbrella.
The president’s bombastic rhetoric discourages many people. But often raises pertinent questions. For example – have US economic involvement with China for two decades produced only a rival superpower in the 21st century, at the same time destroying the American industry? And 80 years after the defeat of Nazism and three and a half decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, should not Europeans take care of their own defense? The problem is that Trump’s approach to these issues risks undermining the safety and stability of the world he claims to lead.
The risks of Trump’s volatile temperament
The signs regarding Trump’s foreign policy priorities are not encouraging, especially after he started commercial wars that shook the global markets and of which there is no easy way out.
But perhaps his unorthodox approach can find a solution for the war in Ukraine that a more traditional president could not. Certainly he expects something in return for his frequent reverences to Russian President Vladimir Putin. And after destroying the last nuclear agreement with Iran in their first term, it now looks for another to avoid the horrible scenario of US military attacks. However, Trump’s highly personalized and volatile approach to the world seems as prone to failing as succeeding.
Trump made his name as a builder. But it is better to destroy than to build. And throwing yourself at the center of global events and entering the minds of millions of people with explosions on social networks is far from being proper to a statesman. Such as inventing colossal tariffs without any real base.
Far from reinforcing US power, Trump risks weakening him.
Its aggressive behavior is leading foreign nations to quickly reevaluate their relationship with the US. Do you face the same choice as university presidents, CEOs, and average heads in the US, but with greater consequences: to resist the new “king” of America or to bay it?
British Prime Minister Keir Strmer went to Washington with the offer of a state visit with King Carlos to try to explore Trump’s love for British royalty. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tried to make him ahead-and was expelled from the White House after being scolded live in the oval room. And Canada, one of the closest friends in the US, has shown exactly how Trump’s approach can lead to surprising resentment and political consequences. The president’s demands for Canada to become the 51st US state giving a new breath of the Liberal Party, which won the general elections with an anti-Trump platform led by Prime Minister Mark Carnery. Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, who a few months ago he led in the polls, even lost his place in Parliament.
“The president and those around him feel that they today have greater freedom of action,” says Ian Lesser, senior investigator and advisor to German President Marshall Fund. “This includes not having to consider the opinions of traditional allies. It can bring successes. But it also implies systemic risks.” One of these risks is the fragmentation of alliances that have sustained the US power and goodwill for decades, because Trump sees America’s traditional friends as parasites.
He does not hide that he prefers to sit with tyrants such as Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping-who sees strong men in his image-than with allied nations who spilled blood alongside the US to protect freedom and democracy.
Trump’s ‘Social Darwinism’
Although Trump’s actions often seem impulsive, there is a clear ideological basis for their second term ambitions – though unpleasant to countries that have trusted the US for decades.
In a new article in International Politik Quarterly magazine, two German foreign policy experts argue that Trump’s behavior is not that of an erratic impulsive but that of someone with a coherent worldview.
“Trump does not know friends or enemies, only strength or weakness,” wrote former Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, former German presidency advisor and current president of the German Council for External Relations. According to them, Trump “thrives in a world of social Darwinism.” If this is the case, one of the pillars of US power has been lost.
The country that was a bastion of stability and led the West against Nazism and communism is now the most unpredictable force in world politics. Trump is far from being the geopolitical chess master he thinks is. His commercial confrontation with China underestimated Beijing’s pride and his refusal to give in. (Chinese leaders also want to command the world.)
And, paradoxically, your aggressive attempts to use American power can result in the loss of global leverage.
A possible result of the trade war with China is the separation of the two deeply interconnected economies. This can be a painful process for consumers from both countries. But it can also remove one of the factors that discouraged an invasion of Taiwan: the hypothesis of a US commercial cutting time to destroy the Chinese economy.
In Europe a similar loss of influence may occur. If US allies meet promises to rear, with fear of a future without American support, their new independence can weaken the Atlantic alliance that multiplied US power during generations.
Trump’s approach is also destroying the allies’ confidence in Washington, draining the US power and non-military influence with each passing day. The president is not only apparently willing to recognize Putin’s illegal annexations in Ukraine, but he also considers he himself… in Granelândia. And he reversed President John Kennedy’s motto, who said the US did not lead for the power of strength, but by the strength of the example.
Their contempt for human rights and the rule of law; the preference for dictators over democrats; And the cutting of foreign aid that kept millions of living Africans can irrevocably stain the reputation of America.
Many US friends question now if they even share the same values as the Americans they elected – twice – a president whose convictions reject.
Some Asian allies are reconsider the assumptions about US support in an increasingly dominated region of China.
In Europe, Trump’s return to power has intensified fears that the US has other strategic priorities and that its allies must learn to defend themselves alone. “I think Trump’s victory in the elections has given, in a way, a push to history, and that a concern that was theoretical or long-term anxiety has now become a short-term priority,” Lesser said from Ankara, Turkey.
Trump may think he’s running the world now, but she is almost sure to make him harder to rule for the following presidents.
