Global InformationForeign policy of the Donald Trump administration information
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45th President of the United States
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U.S. foreign policy during the presidency of Donald Trump (2017–2021) was noted for its unpredictability and reneging on prior international commitments,[1][2][3][4] upending diplomatic conventions, embracing political and economic brinkmanship with most adversaries, and stronger relations with traditional allies. Trump's "America First" policy pursued nationalist foreign policy objectives and prioritized bilateral relations over multinational agreements.[5][1] As president, Trump described himself as a nationalist[6] while espousing views that have been characterized as isolationist, non-interventionist, and protectionist,[7][8][9] although the "isolationist" label has been disputed,[10][11][12][13][14][15] including by Trump himself,[16][17] and periods of his political career have been described by the alternative term “semi-isolationist.”[18][19][20] He personally praised some populist, neo-nationalist, illiberal, and authoritarian governments, while antagonizing others, even as administration diplomats nominally continued to pursue pro-democracy ideals abroad.[21]
Upon taking office, Trump relied more on military personnel than any previous administration since the presidency of Ronald Reagan,[22] and more on White House advisors than on the State Department to advise him on international relations; for example, assigning policy related to the Middle East peace process to senior advisor Jared Kushner.[23] Former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson was Trump's first Secretary of State, appointed for his experience and contacts in many other countries, particularly Russia.[24] During Tillerson's tenure at the State Department, budget cuts and Trump's reliance on White House advisors led to media reports that the State Department had been noticeably "sidelined".[23] Former CIA director Mike Pompeo succeeded Tillerson as Secretary of State in April 2018.[25]
As part of the "America First" policy, Trump's administration reevaluated many of the U.S.'s prior multinational commitments, including withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the INF Treaty, the UNHRC and UNESCO, and the Paris Agreement, and urging NATO allies to increase burden sharing. The Trump administration introduced a ban on travel from certain Muslim-majority countries and recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. He sought rapprochement with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as part of efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, although North Korea continued to expand its nuclear arsenal. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal and increased sanctions against Iran, precipitating several confrontations between the two countries. He increased belligerence against Venezuela and Nicaragua while overseeing drawdowns of U.S. troops from Syria, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan, while agreeing with the Taliban for a conditional full withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. He also increased U.S. drone strikes in Africa,[26] and continued the U.S.'s war on terror and campaign against the Islamic State terror organization, including overseeing the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October 2019.[27] In January 2020, Trump ordered a drone strike in Iraq which assassinated Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani.
The Trump administration often used economic pressure to enforce its foreign policy goals.[28] Trump's import tariffs agitated trade partners and triggered a trade war with China. He also signed the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), a continental trade agreement which replaced NAFTA. Trump's administration brokered the Kosovo–Serbia agreement, the Abraham Accords, and subsequent Arab-Israeli normalization agreements with Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
- ^ a b Bennhold, Katrin (June 6, 2020). "Has 'America First' Become 'Trump First'? Germans Wonder". The New York Times.
- ^ McGurk, Brett (January 22, 2020). "The Cost of an Incoherent Foreign Policy: Trump's Iran Imbroglio Undermines U.S. Priorities Everywhere Else". Foreign Affairs.
- ^ Brands, Hal (August 20, 2019). "Trump's True Foreign Policy: Chaos". Bloomberg News.
- ^ Haass, Richard (September–October 2020). "Present at the Disruption: How Trump Unmade U.S. Foreign Policy". Foreign Affairs.
- ^ Swanson, Ana (March 12, 2020). "Trump Administration Escalates Tensions With Europe as Crisis Looms". The New York Times.
- ^ Cummings, William (October 24, 2018). "'I am a nationalist': Trump's embrace of controversial label sparks uproar". USA Today.
- ^ Rucker, Philip; Costa, Robert (March 21, 2016). "Trump questions need for NATO, outlines noninterventionist foreign policy". The Washington Post.
- ^ Nelson, Reid J. Epstein and Colleen McCain (June 28, 2016). "Donald Trump Lays Out Protectionist Views in Trade Speech". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ Dodson, Kyle; Brooks, Clem (September 20, 2021). "All by Himself? Trump, Isolationism, and the American Electorate". The Sociological Quarterly. 63 (4): 780–803. doi:10.1080/00380253.2021.1966348. ISSN 0038-0253. S2CID 240577549.
- ^ Posen, Barry. “The Rise of Illiberal Hegemony: Trump’s Surprising Grand Strategy”, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 97, p. 20 (2018): "Some have gone so far as to apply to Trump the most feared epithet in the U.S. foreign policy establishment: 'isolationist.' In fact, Trump is anything but."
- ^ Stranne, Frida. "Trump’s Foreign Policy Agenda is Anything but Isolationism", American Studies in Scandinavia, 52:1 (2020), pp. 99-120.
- ^ Faux, Jeff. ““Donald Trump is no isolationist”, Slate (Nov 25, 2017).
- ^ Wertheim, Stephen. “Quit calling Donald Trump an isolationist. He’s worse than that.”, Washington Post (Feb 17, 2017).
- ^ Meaney, Thomas. “Warfare State,” London Review of Books (5 Nov 2020): “The administration has been presented as ‘isolationist’ yet has agreed bilateral trade deals around the world and strengthened ties with Japan, Israel and Saudi Arabia – three traditional partners – while undertaking major war games against Russia and China. This year’s Defender Europe 20 would have been the US army’s largest exercise on the continent in 25 years if Covid-19 hadn’t limited its scope. It’s hard to detect any measurable change in approach. Even Trump’s attempt to pressure Beijing into abandoning industrial measures that allegedly give it an unfair advantage in international trade have ample precedent in Reagan’s 1980s trade war with Japan.”
- ^ Mearsheimer, John and Anderson, John, Direct: Prof. John Mearsheimer, American political scientist,” 55:30 (8 Dec 2023).
- ^ ”Transcript: Donald Trump Expounds on His Foreign Policy Views,” New York Times (March 16, 2016): “We won’t be isolationists — I don’t want to go there because I don’t believe in that. I think we’ll be very worldview, but we’re not going to be ripped off anymore by all of these countries.”
- ^ “Trump claims he is 'not an isolationist' during German Chancellor Merkel's US visit”, The Independent (17 Mar 2017).
- ^ Watson, Kathryn. “Trump's shift away from ‘America first’ stance polarizes supporters”, CBS News (14 Apr 2017): “These actions, which came as the White House weighs what to do in the event of a North Korea nuclear test, clearly pivot from Mr. Trump’s previous, semi-isolationist stance. Mr. Trump on the campaign trail espoused his ‘America first’ philosophy, saying he would beef up America’s military presence, but avoid tumultuous areas like the Middle East to focus on American interests.”
- ^ John Cassidy, Donald Trump Is Transforming the G.O.P. into a Populist, Nativist Party, New Yorker (February 29, 2016): Trump seeks "a more populist, nativist, avowedly protectionist, and semi-isolationist party that is skeptical of immigration, free trade, and military interventionism."
- ^ Denton, Robert. The 2016 US Presidential Campaign Political Communication and Practice, p. 296 (Soringer, 2017): “Trump's 2016 messages drew heavily on his personal image enhanced by media exposure. His positions were right-wing populism-nativist, protectionist, and semi-isolationist and differed in many ways from traditional conservatism.”
- ^ Carothers, Thomas; Brown, Frances Z. (October 1, 2019). "Can U.S. Democracy Policy Survive Trump?". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
- ^ Solomon, Jay (January 26, 2017). "Military Brass Fill Donald Trump's National Security Council". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
- ^ a b Morello, Carol; Gearan, Anne (February 22, 2017). "In first month of Trump presidency, State Department has been sidelined". Washington Post. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
- ^ Mahanta, Siddhartha (January 11, 2017). "A Brief Guide to Rex Tillerson's Controversial Foreign Ties". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
- ^ Wilkinson, Tracy (March 26, 2017). "Trump budget slashes State Department, but top U.S. diplomat doesn't object". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
- ^ "C.I.A. Drone Mission, Curtailed by Obama, Is Expanded in Africa Under Trump". The New York Times. September 9, 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
- ^ "ISIS leader killed in daring U.S. raid in Syria, Trump says". POLITICO. October 27, 2019.
- ^ "Trump Wields U.S. Economic Might in Struggles With Allies and Adversaries Alike", Wall Street Journal, Jan. f17, 2020