Trump's foreign politics ensures growing frustrations

Trump's foreign politics ensures growing frustrations

Every president believes that he can change the world - and Donald Trump has an even more pronounced feeling of personal omnipotence than his predecessors. But for the 47th president, things are not entirely according to plan. Trump may intimidate tech giants and try to influence institutions such as the Harvard University and judges by the government's power, but some world leaders are not so easy to put pressure on.

Putin and the challenges of foreign policy

Trump's attempts to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, often end in humiliation and ignorance. Putin ignores the efforts of the United States to end the conflict in Ukraine, and Russian media now draw the image of a Trump that raises large -scale claims, but never draws serious consequences from its threats.

foreign policy towards China and the EU

also in dealing with China, Trump suffered setbacks. Despite his ideas of influencing the Chinese head of state Xi Jinping through trade wars, he misunderstanding political dynamics in Beijing. An authoritarian leader in Beijing can never bow to a US president. US officials now express that they are frustrated because China has not fulfilled his obligations to de-escalation the trade conflict.

in the dispute with the European Union about tariffs, Trump also pulled the shorter. The commentator Robert Armstrong of Financial Times brought the president to the president by shaping the term "taco trade"-"Trump Always Chickens Out" (Trump always pinches).

The Middle East and the complexity of the peace negotiations

Many thought that Trump would be on a wavelength with Benjamin Netanyahu on the question of the Middle East after he had offered practically everything he wanted during his first term. But when Trump tries to convey peace in the Middle East, he realizes that the continuation of the Gaza conflict for Netanyahu's political career is existential, similar to the conflict in Ukraine for Putin. Trump's ambitions regarding an Iranian nuclear agreement also contradicts Israel's plans to take militarily against the Iranian reactors.

The limits of American power

powerful leaders pursue their own interests in a parallel reality and on different historical temporities that differ from the rather transaction -based claims of American presidents. Many of the international actors are not susceptible to personal appeals without consideration. And after Trumps, the Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj and the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office are trying to expose the attraction of the White House rapidly.

Trump spent months on the campaign path and bragged out with his “very good relationship” to Putin and XI, which supposedly sparking geopolitical and economic problems should solve.

The illusions of American presidents

He is not the first US president who suffers from such illusions. President George W. Bush once looked in Putin in the eye and said that he had won a "sense of his soul". Barack Obama, on the other hand, regarded Russia as a decaying regional power and described Putin as "the bored student in the back row". That was not particularly wise when the bored student annexed the Crimea.

an unchanged America?

In the further course of the 21st century, all presidents acted as if they were men of fate. Bush came to power with the decision not to act as a global policeman. But the attacks of September 11, 2001 made him exactly for that. He started wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - the United States won, but lost peace. His failed goal of democratizing the Arab world also brought no fruits.

Obama tried to reconcile the global wars against terror and traveled to Egypt to tell the Muslims that it was time for "a new beginning". But his charisma and unique origin alone were not enough to change the world order.

Joe Biden traveled to the globe and announced that "America is back" after threw Trump out of the White House. But four years later, partly due to his own catastrophic decision to run for a second term, America - or at least the internationalist version of the post -war order - has disappeared again, and Trump has back.

Trump and the power of communication

Trump's “America First” populism is based on the assumption that the United States has been ripped off for decades, while alliances and the shaping of global capitalism have made it the most powerful nation in the history of the planet. Now, as if he had assumed the role of a strong man who has to obey everyone, he gives this legacy with his aggressive approach and undermines the soft power of the USA - i.e. the ability to convince.

The first four months by Trump's presidency, characterized by customs threats, warnings of a US territory expansion in Canada and Greenland as well as the handling of global humanitarian aid programs, show that the rest of the world also has a say. So far it seems that the leaders in China, Russia, Israel, Europe and Canada have recognized that Trump is not as powerful as he thinks that there is no price for disregarding his threats or that their own domestic policy is compelling.