LONDON — On a freewheeling Inauguration Day of speeches, casual remarks and formal balls, President Donald Trump wasted no time in shaping the world in his unmistakable image.
Unlike four years ago, when his term began in unprepared chaos, this time President Trump has taken a series of actions that seek to ignore many of former President Joe Biden’s decisions and replace them with his own harsh condemnations. He made a statement.
From tariffs, TikTok and the Middle East to the climate crisis and global health, here’s a look at President Trump’s foreign policy moves and the world’s reaction in the first 24 hours of his 1,461-day term.
Russia
The president has previously vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office. “It’s only half a day. There’s still half a day left,” he said Monday.
The idea has sparked alarm in Europe, where there are fears that Trump could force Ukraine into a deal favorable to Russian President Vladimir Putin. President Trump recently extended that deadline to up to six months, a move some see as a show of support for Ukraine.
On Monday, President Trump appeared to criticize Putin, one of the authoritarian leaders he has previously spoken warmly of, saying he is “not doing a very good job.”
President Trump said that the course of the war “doesn’t give a very good impression” to President Putin, adding that he is “destroying Russia by not making a deal.”
Asked about President Trump’s comments on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: “We respect the choice of the American people,” adding, “President Trump reiterated why he also respects the choice of the Russian people. He said,
middle east
Regarding the initial ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that his team helped broker, the president said he was “not confident” it would last, adding: “It’s not our war.” It’s their war. ”
U.S. officials credit Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy for Middle East peace, with helping push the deal over the line.
He alluded to his background in real estate in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli airstrikes have displaced most of the population and killed more than 46,000 people, according to local authorities.
“Gaza is like a site of massive destruction. That place really has to be rebuilt in a different way,” he said, adding: “It’s a wonderful place, right on the sea, and the weather is perfect. You could do some beautiful things with it.”
Trump also rescinded Biden’s sanctions against Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, who are accused of violence against Palestinians.
The president’s first term was marked by a series of pro-Israel moves, including moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and scrapping the Iran nuclear deal. The 2020 Abraham Accords, which established Israel’s relations with several countries in the Middle East and North Africa, was perhaps the biggest foreign policy achievement of the first Trump administration.
north korea
There was a clear sense of tension in South Korea after President Trump referred to North Korea as a “nuclear state.”
U.S. officials have long refrained from using the term, fearing it could imply recognition of North Korea as a nuclear state. South Korea said on Tuesday that North Korea “can never be recognized as such.”
One of the norm-shattering stories of the president’s first term was his nuclear brinkmanship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The two exchanged personal insults and nuclear threats before Trump told the world, “We fell in love.”
China
President Trump has threatened to impose 60% tariffs on all Chinese goods during the 2024 campaign, risking a repeat of the China trade war he fought during his first term.
He is now suggesting that the US could use these tariffs to force its way through a deal to buy half of social media platform TikTok. An executive order signed by President Trump on Monday delays for 75 days a Biden law that would have required Chinese tech giant ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok or ban the platform in the United States.
“The United States should have the right to half of TikTok,” President Trump told reporters. Asked about ByteDance’s close relationship with the Chinese government, he said “we see an agreement” that the U.S. would monitor “somewhat or quite heavily.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press conference on Tuesday that Beijing “adheres to the principles of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence and is ready to cooperate with the new US administration,” perhaps hinting at past clashes. .
european far right
While U.S. inaugurations have historically been primarily domestic affairs, figures from the global political right, including far-right populist fringe figures, were invited to Washington on Monday.
They included members of Alternative for Germany, a far-right nationalist party that has been under surveillance by the Berlin government for alleged extremism and recently championed by Trump ally Elon Musk.
Italy’s staunchly anti-immigrant Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also attended.
Hungarian populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a longtime Trump ally, said Trump’s appointment would aid the far-right’s political attack on the European Union’s mainstream.
“Now we can launch a major offensive. With this, I will launch the second phase of the offensive aimed at capturing Brussels,” he said at an event in Budapest.
He is the chief opponent of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has made her own assessment.
“We have entered a new era of intense geopolitical competition,” he said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “It is in no one’s interest to sever the bonds of the global economy.”
During his first term, President Trump warned European leaders that they might not be able to protect Europe from Russia without increasing defense spending. On Monday, he reiterated his latest call for these countries to contribute 5% of their GDP to defense, more than double the NATO recommendation.
He also threatened to seize the autonomous territory of Greenland by force, which upset Denmark. These territorial ambitions have also focused on Panama, with President Trump claiming at his inauguration that the Panama Canal is controlled by China and that “we will take it back.”
climate change
As expected, one of President Trump’s first executive orders was the 2016 Paris climate agreement, in which countries agreed to limit post-industrial temperature increases to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius (2.7 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). It was a withdrawal from the Variation Agreement.
This would make the US a non-signatory of the deal, along with Yemen, Iran and Libya, which President Trump has described as a “rip-off” but which experts say remains a key step in limiting a catastrophe. He says it is humanity’s best hope.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling (which requires approval from Congress) along much of the U.S. coastline.
Still, the White House said the Paris climate accord does not “reflect our nation’s values,” and President Trump instead promised “train, baby, train.”
WHO
Similarly, it was expected that Trump would abandon Washington’s role in the World Health Organization. He claimed that the World Health Organization supported the Chinese government’s efforts to “mislead the world” about the coronavirus, an allegation denied by both the WHO and the Chinese government.
The United States is by far the WHO’s largest financial supporter, providing 18% of the $6.8 billion budget. President Trump signed an executive order withdrawing from the WHO, saying that China’s low contribution but large population “seems a little unfair to me.”
Experts say leaving the organization could undermine global programs tackling diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
