China and Iran will be at the top of the tycoon’s priority list. Trump no longer trusts Chinese leader Xi Jinping and wants to start a new trade war against the Asian giant, aiming to apply a policy of “maximum pressure” on Tehran
The Economist
Less than a week after the vote that returned the White House and, apparently, control of the House and Senate to Republicans, the chancellors of countries allied with the United States are anxiously awaiting the January 20, 2025 inauguration of Donald Trump. Historical partners of the US fear that the tycoon’s second term could be characterized by an isolationist foreign policy with disastrous consequences for Europe, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, among others. However, according to what was claimed by the closest associates of Donald Trump, interviewed by the “Wall Street Journal”, what we can witness in the next four years, the New York newspaper reports, will not be the withdrawal of the States , but their return to the world stage in the name of restoring preventive and transactional agreements with allies.
PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH
There are many crisis areas, from Ukraine to the Middle East through the South China Sea, which the White House cannot afford to ignore and which, despite the more traditional approach to foreign policy pursued by Biden, have been affected by a deterioration of the balance of power precisely to the detriment of American influence. “There will be a return to peace through force,” says Robert O’Brien, former national security adviser during Trump’s first presidency.
O’Brien, who may find a place in the new administration, claims that “deterrence will be restored” and that America’s enemies understand that they can no longer get away with it as they did with Biden in power. Retired General Keith Kellogg, who worked in the White House in the Trump I years, explains that the Republican “will reach out to key leaders to seek and find a solution to the problems.” For Kellogg, enacting sanctions and using brute force will always be options on the president’s table, but they won’t be his first choice.
FOREIGN POLICY
Although it is not clear how Trump wants to develop relations with the Old Continent and with NATO and admits that he may push for the withdrawal of US troops from Syria and Iraq, according to sources from the “Wall Street Journal”, China and Iran will be at the top of the tycoon’s priority list. Trump no longer trusts Chinese leader Xi Jinping and wants to launch a new trade war against the Asian giant, aiming to apply a policy of “maximum pressure” on Tehran.
The biggest unknowns undoubtedly remain the two war fronts in Israel and Ukraine and the possible evolution of Donald’s relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the one hand, and with Russian Putin and Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky, on the other. Trump would also like to end the conflict in Ukraine quickly and at any cost.
ULTIMATE FOR ISRAEL
If it is true that Trump would have given Bibi the green light to use an iron fist in the fight against Tehran, the Republican has every interest in seeing a quick end to the Middle East crisis with one goal in mind: to include Saudi Arabia in the Abraham Accords, the series of agreements brokered by the United States between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors.
For his part, while fully behind Israel, Trump wants the wars in Gaza and Lebanon to end by his inauguration on Jan. 20, and he made that clear to Netanyahu. He also informed the Biden administration that he expects progress in efforts to reach a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. But Joe Biden is still in power in the US, so Netanyahu’s Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, traveled to Washington to try to negotiate with the Americans a way to make progress on the ceasefire in Lebanon. However, Netanyahu’s government is not counting on an imminent end to the war.
