The Revere

By Sebastian Djerejian

Trump is undoubtedly redefining American foreign policy. Will his approach reestablish American power abroad or continue to break down a collapsing empire?

Since the end of WW2, U.S. foreign policy has been the leading force behind the creation of the liberal world order, which has promoted predictability and cooperation around the world. These policies have led to the creation of the United Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, World Trade Organization, and the World Health Organization, among other international organizations, which have stood as cornerstones of American foreign policy. However, over President Trump’s first and more notably second term, he has successfully been unraveling this system by frequently attacking and undermining both these organizations and international law, including various threatened and executed military actions.  As a result, countries around the world have begun losing trust in U.S. leadership, weakening American soft power. Given the U.S.’s withdrawal from various international organizations, the Chinese government has taken advantage of this increasing vacuum by continuing to expand its influence on a global basis, leading to a steady rise in Chinese soft power and popularity. 

The United States’ growing abandonment of the international system has eroded the trust of its allies around the world.  Since Trump’s second inauguration, the President has pulled out or issued withdrawals of funding from international organizations and treaties such as the WHO, UNESCO, UN Human Rights Council, and the Paris Climate Accords. In fact, in accordance with Executive Order 14199, President Trump announced the withdrawal from 66 international organizations, citing these organizations as “wasteful, ineffective, and harmful.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a State Department article that “the international system is now overrun with hundreds of opaque international organizations, many with overlapping mandates, duplicative actions, ineffective outputs, and poor financial and ethical governance.” This contention is eminently debatable, but regardless, the problem with the Trump Administration’s incessant attacks to undermine the international system is that it undermines American capabilities to lead a global order. As stated earlier, this “international system” was mainly created, and for the majority of its existence, led by the United States. Trump’s attacks on the system the United States built signal to the world that we ourselves no longer trust the system of our own creation, and if that is indeed the case, why should any other country? 

Global trust in the US is on the decline. PEW research has found from people surveyed in 34 countries that 69% “didn’t trust Trump to do the right thing in regards to international affairs.”  US skepticism in the international system is only further fueling a distrust in the United States. As an example, in that same study, 40% of people thought the US used to be a good example of democracy, but not in recent years. The data shows a clear trend that the United States soft power is weakening across the globe as more countries become hesitant about whether to trust Trump’s foreign policy.  As US superiority has begun to fade, China is stepping in more forcefully as an alternative global superpower.  In another study conducted by PEW research center across 10 high-income nations that are close US allies and liberal democracies, 24% of people had confidence in Xi Jinping compared to Trump, who came in two percent lower at 22%, which alarmingly was a 31% drop from 2024 while Biden was in office. Historically closely allied countries such as France, Canada, and Germany having more confidence in the leader of your global rival is not a good look for the US or its efforts to sustain its leading role in the global order. To make matters worse, in that same study, participants were asked “ which country is the greatest threat to their country?” and the results found that in Europe and Latin America, the US tended to be higher on the list than China, and in the case of France and Britain, ranked as the second biggest threat only behind Russia.  These two research studies undeniably demonstrate a shift away from favorability towards the United States to favorability towards China, a key sign that Trump’s current foreign policy decisions are causing great harm to the US global position.

 The Trump administration’s foreign policy mistakes do not end there. Despite Trump’s policy of “Peace Through Strength” evidencing some military successes, his breaches of international law and the overwhelming condemnations that result have further weakened U.S. trust abroad.  An example of a “Peace Through Strength” policy mistake was the United States’ “Operation Midnight Hammer,”  which targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities.  From a purely military point of view, this operation was a success. The US claims it set Iran’s nuclear weapons program back several years, successfully achieving U.S. interests in the region without engaging in long-term conflict. However, international public opinion on US foreign policy once again soured, as many felt the attack was a violation of the UN’s charter to prohibit force without meeting the criteria of self-defense. 

Another recent example that was again characterized by a militarily successful operation but one that challenged international norms and was premised on dubious legality was the extrication of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from Caracas to detention in New York City. While US forces airlifted Maduro out of Venezuela in a daring operation, questions of ‘head of state’ immunity risk yet another example of the international community fearing that the United States no longer respects the international law norms that it helped successfully create after WW2. 

Another example that is developing in real time now is the case of Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark.  This situation may prove the most egregious of all, risking profound damage to the international order, perhaps even the effective dissolution of NATO. President Trump appears adamant that he wishes to secure sovereignty over Greenland, by unilateral military means if necessary, but all the US’s fellow NATO allies (including notably Denmark) vehemently disagree. For Trump to actually invade would put the lie to any pretense of NATO solidarity, effectively a death sentence for the NATO Alliance, which would have grave and far-reaching consequences for today’s international system. 

Taken together, the collective Trump foreign policy described above is extremely worrisome. On the one hand, the Trump Administration has withdrawn from myriad international bodies and organizations, itself a terrible signal with respect to abdicating the international leadership mantle the U.S. bore after WW2. But to make matters significantly worse, the U.S under Trump is not only withdrawing from the scene, but simultaneously (and frequently) using its military in contravention of international norms. These actions risk having world perception increasingly veer more negatively about the U.S. (beyond the worrisome trend-lines already mentioned above) as the country risks appearing more as a rogue actor on the international scene than, as often in its past, its most loyal defender. While this would require a major shift in the Administration’s policy, the stakes are too high, and it is time for an urgent course correction before matters deteriorate in the future to the benefit of other actors on the global scene.