{"id":32740,"date":"2025-06-27T18:45:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T18:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32740"},"modified":"2025-06-27T18:45:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T18:45:05","slug":"what-kind-of-world-does-trump-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32740","title":{"rendered":"What kind of world does Trump want?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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America\u2019s transatlantic allies had reason to be worried ahead of the Nato summit at The Hague this week. <\/p>\n

After a manic few days for US foreign policy that included American air strikes on Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities, the US president seemed in no mood for pleasantries. <\/p>\n

As he left the White House for the trip to the Netherlands, his frustration at the state of negotiations with Israel and Iran boiled over into profanity. \u201cWe basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don\u2019t know what the fuck they\u2019re doing,\u201d Trump told reporters.<\/p>\n

Yet the president defied worries at the summit, allowing the pact that has underpinned European security since the dawn of the cold war to live on.\u00a0\u201cWhen I was around that table, it was a nice group of people,\u201d Trump said during his closing press conference in The Hague on Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s not a rip-off. And we are here to help them protect their [countries],\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump was\u00a0satisfied because he has finally secured pledges by nearly all Nato members to sharply increase their defence spending, the issue over which he has berated and threatened them since early in his first term. His mood was also lifted by the heavy dose of flattery he received from Mark Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister and new head of Nato, including for the Iranian operation.<\/p>\n

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Trump, seated next to Italy\u2019s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at a dinner during this week\u2019s Nato summit in The Hague. The US president secured pledges by nearly all alliance members to sharply increase their defence spending<\/span> \u00a9 POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the bonhomie at Nato was so hard won that it exposed just how gripped the world is by the whims of the man in the White House, and Trump\u2019s boisterous and volatile foreign policy tactics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just this month, the US president left a G7 summit in Canada early in dramatic fashion to return to Washington to consider strikes against Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities, proceeded with the military action within five days and then promptly brokered a ceasefire deal in a bid to end the hostilities. <\/p>\n

He arrived at the Nato summit arguing that the mutual defence pact at the heart of the alliance was \u201copen to interpretation\u201d,\u00a0causing a level of panic among some delegations. But Trump said little more to undermine the alliance in the Netherlands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both internationally and domestically, officials and investors are left struggling to understand if he is an interventionist or a peacemaker, or if there is any guiding theory to his actions and rhetoric.<\/p>\n

The president seems to exhibit no \u201cparticular ideological agenda\u201d except self-interest, says Julian Zelizer, a political history professor at Princeton University. \u201cWhen he sees an opportunity for himself and for his power, he takes it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foreign capitals are also trying to calculate whether resistance to Trump may be the best option to safeguard their economies and interests despite the obvious risks, or if acquiescence might be the safer bet. But at some point they all know they will have to grapple with Trump\u2019s gyrations and often irascible demands, sometimes transmitted via social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe core of Trump\u2019s foreign policy is unpredictability,\u201d says Ray Takeyh, a former state department senior adviser on Iran, now at the Council on Foreign Relations. \u201cIt almost doesn\u2019t matter if he is staffed by internationalists, restrainers or isolationists. He will do what he wants and others have to adjust.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Trump\u2019s decision to order<\/strong> air strikes on Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities last weekend was still very much at the top of mind when he arrived in the Netherlands on Tuesday for the Nato summit. <\/p>\n

The US president and his top national security advisers had managed to cobble together a tenuous truce between Israel and Iran on the eve of his trip, easing some of the fears of regional escalation and conflagration in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think it\u2019s over. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to be going back at each other,\u201d Trump said in the Netherlands. \u201cWe\u2019ve also reasserted the credibility of American deterrence, which is like no other,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But while the diplomatic and military shockwaves from the US air strikes were still reverberating around the world, and the president even invoked the possibility of \u201cregime change\u201d in Tehran, he was quickly placed on the defensive by revelations that the initial assessment by military intelligence found that the air strikes set back Iran\u2019s nuclear programme by only a few months, not years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump was quick to dismiss the conclusions, which were discordant with his claim that the nuclear facilities had been \u201cobliterated,\u201d then proceeded to attack the media outlets including CNN and the New York Times who first reported on the findings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Trump, The Hague summit was about two things: a \u2018Victory in Europe\u2019 Day over defence spending and a fight with the US media over the status of the Iranian nuclear programme,\u201d says Joel Linnainm\u00e4ki, research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, a think-tank.\u00a0\u201cHe was mostly focused on the latter. The core concern of Trump\u2019s foreign policy is how things appear to his base back home.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n

But the furore obscured another unfolding shift in Trump\u2019s Iran policy: in the wake of the ceasefire, the US said it was willing to relaunch negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear programme as early as next week \u2014 which could potentially lead to a loosening of sanctions on the country. <\/p>\n

Even the hawkish Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican senator who is a close ally of Trump, seemed unsettled by the possibility. \u201cI don\u2019t want people to think the problem is over, because it\u2019s not,\u201d he told reporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet despite the whiplash, many Republicans think Trump\u2019s Iran strategy has been successful so far. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe very well may have created the conditions for Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions, and time will tell,\u201d says Heather Nauert, a former state department official in Trump\u2019s first term. \u201cBut we have got them to a place where they\u2019re willing to sit down and have what I hope will be a serious conversation about the future of their country.\u201d <\/p>\n

But to critics of the White House, it has all seemed haphazard. \u201cThe administration seems to be making it up as they go along, with senior officials never knowing from one minute to the next whether what they say or do will be undermined by a presidential tweet,\u201d says Jim Townsend, former US deputy assistant secretary of defence for European and Nato policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

A successful Nato summit<\/strong> had by no means been a foregone conclusion. <\/p>\n

Beyond Trump\u2019s questioning of Article 5, the mutual defence treaty, allies were braced for the potential Trump fallout from Spain\u2019s last-minute opt out from the soon-to-be-agreed target of\u00a05 per cent of GDP for defence spending, which threatened to torpedo it all. \u201cSpain\u2019s not agreeing, which is very unfair to the rest of them,\u201d Trump said on Air Force One.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Trump dined with the king and queen of the Netherlands and other world leaders on Tuesday night, the officials, diplomats and security experts at parties and events on the sidelines of the summit were preparing themselves for just how badly the following day would go.<\/p>\n

Europeans \u201cneed to do everything we can to keep the US\u201d onboard, even if that means having to \u201cdance like monkeys\u201d for Trump, said one foreign policy adviser to a Nato member government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Praise from Rutte, who even called Trump \u201cdaddy\u201d during a bilateral meeting, helped win him over.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald, you have driven us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe, and the world,\u201d Rutte wrote in a text message to the president, who then posted it on TruthSocial. \u201cYou will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Texts<\/picture>
Texts from Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte to Trump, who posted them on TruthSocial. Praise from Rutte, who called the president \u2018daddy\u2019 during a bilateral meeting, helped to win him over<\/span> \u00a9 Donald J. Trump\/Truth<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the end, The Hague summit declaration enshrined the commitment by Nato members to spend 5 per cent on defence by 2035, citing \u201cthe long- term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security and the persistent threat of terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n

General David Petraeus, who led several US military campaigns in the Middle East, told CNN this week that Trump\u2019s \u201cangry man theory\u201d of diplomacy appeared to be working.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he has done this very effectively. He has expressed his displeasure repeatedly. They have clearly taken it very seriously. There\u2019s been a lot of soul searching in Europe\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009They\u2019re very concerned about [Trump\u2019s] response, and they have taken action as a result, and that is great to see,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spain, however, remained the holdout in refusing to meet the defence spending target. The US president had no mercy for Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez during his press conference, insisting that he could punish Madrid on trade for not complying as the US and EU try to hash out a deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re negotiating with Spain on a trade deal. We\u2019re going to make them pay twice as much, and I\u2019m actually serious about that,\u201d Trump said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/picture>
Spain\u2019s Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez holds a press conference at the European Council in Brussels on Thursday. Spain refused to commit to the Nato target on defence spending<\/span> \u00a9 AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trade is likely to displace national security in Trump\u2019s attention in coming weeks, with the approach of the July 9 deadline set by Washington for many of America\u2019s trading partners to reach a deal or face higher levies.<\/p>\n

After the huge equity market drop and even Treasury sell-off in the aftermath of the president\u2019s steep \u201cliberation day\u201d levies on a string of countries, Trump is under pressure to either extend the deadline or reach deals to avert the higher tariffs. <\/p>\n

In defence, too, the success of Trump\u2019s huge geopolitical ventures will be measured by their long-term durability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iran strike seems to have succeeded, and the Nato allies are committed to paying more,\u201d says Takeyh. \u201cThe key question is whether these triumphs are shortlived. If Iran now develops a bomb surreptitiously and the alliance fractures over issues of burden-sharing then it is a more problematic thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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