Trump’s reversal of US foreign policies has consequences 

Just a few weeks into his second term, President Donald Trump has turned much of US foreign policy on its head. His statements and actions have stunned the world and indicated how far he wants to go in his ‘America First’ unilateral approach.

Some of his statements are a throwback to an era of imperialism and territorial expansion. He threatened to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland and turn Canada into the 51st state of the US. One of his executive orders ‘renamed’ the Gulf of Mexico the ‘Gulf of America’. In an expected blow to multilateralism, Trump announced the US would withdraw from the World Health Organization and UN Human Rights Council as well as from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. 

In the Middle East, Trump’s intervention produced the breakthrough that resulted in a ceasefire agreement in Gaza between Hamas and Israel – days before he assumed office. But his subsequent statement that the US will take over Gaza in a “long-term ownership position” and its Palestinian residents should all be relocated to neighboring countries, Jordan and Egypt, provoked world-wide condemnation and anger among Arab states. Announcing this in a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump showed total contempt for international law and norms. Later he repeated the outrageous proposal to displace the Palestinian population and turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. He also discussed his plan with Jordanian and Egyptian leaders despite their vehement objections. In fact, all Arab countries rejected this.

In today’s multipolar global environment, Washington will find that the world will not so easily bend to its will. 

Maleeha Lodhi

Trump’s pronouncements marked a complete reversal of the longstanding US position on a two-state solution, which was also indicated by his tacit acceptance of Israeli designs to annex parts of the West Bank. This will end any possibility of an independent Palestinian state – the key to durable peace in the region. In response, Saudi Arabia declared it would not normalize relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state. 

However unworkable Trump’s Gaza plan, the ball is now in the court of Arab states whose resistance to it will determine its fate. A meeting of GCC countries, Egypt and Jordan took place in Riyadh ahead of a crucial Arab League summit, scheduled for March 4. This is expected to reiterate opposition to any expulsion of Palestinians and outline its own plan to rebuild Gaza. For now, Trump’s intensely pro-Israel stance and provocative plan that endorses ethnic cleansing, have antagonized governments and people across the Arab and Muslim world. Many of Washington’s Western allies have also denounced his pronouncements.

Meanwhile, Trump’s abrupt reversal of US policy on the Ukraine war marked a significant geopolitical shift sending shock waves across Europe. Although he had said during the 2024 election campaign that he wanted an expeditious end to the conflict, it is how he has gone about it that stunned Ukraine and European countries. After a 90-minute phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he dispatched his secretary of state Marco Rubio to Riyadh for bilateral negotiations with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov aimed at ending the war – without consulting European countries and shutting Ukraine out of the talks. 

Trump’s statements blaming Ukraine for starting the conflict and calling President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” while refraining from criticizing Russia further, jolted America’s European allies. This together with Vice President J D Vance’s stinging criticism of European countries in his speech to the Munich Security Conference didn’t just underline his Administration’s disdain for America’s allies. It has led to the unraveling of the transatlantic alliance and raised questions about NATO’s future as indeed America’s commitment to European security. 

The Trump administration also proposed Russia should be allowed back into the G7, opposed reference to “Russian aggression” in a joint G7 statement and indicated readiness to normalize diplomatic relations with Moscow. All this signaled Trump’s willingness to end the Ukraine war on Russia’s terms, having accepted Russian annexation of Crimea and its other territorial claims were irreversible. Writing in the Guardian, columnist Jonathan Freedland concluded that “the global architecture built in 1945 is being burnt to the ground by Trump.” 

It is yet to be seen how far Trump is able to achieve the outcome he seeks by a deal on Ukraine. Even if he does, abandoning America’s allies in the process will exact a price for the US and fracture the western alliance. What has already been demonstrated is that Europe can no longer depend on the US and raised questions about US reliability and trustworthiness across the world. This has consequences for America’s standing and credibility and will likely erode US influence in times to come. 

Getting his own way on Gaza appears far more difficult. Resistance to Trump’s plan cannot be underestimated despite the history of Arab betrayal of the Palestinian cause. Moreover, efforts to force the plan will only plunge the Middle East into greater chaos and instability, which will hardly work to US advantage. Perhaps that’s why Trump later backtracked, saying he will recommend the plan, not impose it.

Trump’s foreign policy actions and pronouncements assume that the world is still unipolar and the US possesses the power to do whatever it likes. But America’s unipolar moment has long passed into history. In today’s multipolar global environment, Washington will find that the world will not so easily bend to its will. 

– Maleeha Lodhi is a former Pakistani ambassador to the US, UK & UN. She posts on X with @LodhiMaleeha