TRUMP’S FOREIGN POLICY

Trump backs America away from its strong support of Ukraine.  With Trump in the White House, an immediate reversal of America’s (and its NATO allies) support of Ukraine in its fight to fend off Russian aggression was announced. Trump even blamed Ukrainian President Zelensky for having “started” the war – ignoring the fact that there was no such war until Russian President Putin took it upon himself to invade Ukraine and bomb its capital city Kiev – without warning or any particular provocation coming from Ukraine.  

Trump claimed that by ending further support of Ukraine, this would force the combatants to come to peace terms … a strange thing to propose by someone supposedly knowledgeable about how power works on the world stage.  In fact all this would do would be to support Putin in his Hitler-like urge to secure his regime by bringing surrounding peoples under his control.  That’s what the whole thing was about from the very beginning.  

Trump was acting like Chamberlain in 1938 when he let Hitler take over the Sudetenland, with the naive (and costly) belief that by doing so he was bringing peace to the world.  Surrendering Ukraine’s ability to defend itself from a massively larger military power bent on muscling its neighbors back under a Russian dependency (that those nations had broken away from at the end of the 1980s) would not only end Ukrainian independence, it would likely then result in a Russian grab of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.  And Finland understood that danger of playing into Putin’s hands by recently joining NATO – as did even “neutral” Sweden.  In fact, all this “Trump diplomacy” would do would bring the world back to an ugly Cold War.  

So why was Trump so bent  on pulling a “Chamberlain” on Ukraine?

And when Zelensky came to the White House at the beginning of March (2025), he was simply shouted down by both Vice President Vance and by Trump … the well-televised meeting proving to be most ugly – and shocking to all.  What was going on here?

Yet Trump somehow believed that he alone was able to bring the Russian-Ukrainian war to an end (making a promise leading up to his election that he could end it within one day of taking office … which dubiously did not happen).  And thus in August he met met with Putin (but not Zelensky) in Alaska to go over ways to end the war.  How Trump could do that without taking Ukraine’s position in the matter into account was a huge mystery.  But Trump lives entirely in a world of his own.  In any case, the three-hour Trump-Putin meeting came to nothing (like so many of Trump’s promises to bring things quickly to peace through his own personal intervention).

Trump brings “democracy” to Venezuela.  Then on January 3, 2026, the world was awakened to the news that American troops had gone into Venezuela and captured both Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife Celia … and brought them back to the States … supposedly to undergo trial for conducting narcoterrorism against the U.S.  Needless to say, the venture involved intense and lengthy (months) preparation … as well as heavy support.  Supposedly some 150 aircraft were involved in the operation .. which included dropping troops into Caracas as 2:01 in the morning while the world slept.

While many were supportive of ousting a clarly illegitimate dictator, the idea of grabbing the head of state did not sit well with many.

The Venezuela presidency was quickly transfered to the Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodrigues (sworn in as president on the 5th of January).  And with that American-Venezuela diplomatic relations were restored.  Indeed, the oil business connecting the two countries was also quickly restored.

But much of the very authoritarian Venezuelan political establishment is still in place – with many Maduro supporters still located throughout the structure.  Thus the situation remains rather uncertain.  

The ongoing Israeli-Arab (and Iranian) wars

Backing off a bit about Gaza.  Going into the 2024 election, and then in his first days in office, Trump voiced very strong support for Israel.  Certainly he was most correct in blaming Hamas for starting the conflict.  But the Israeli response (literally trying to make the Gaza strip uninhabitable for anyone) brought a reaction not only to Americans but also  to Trump … who seemed to move to a more neutral position – especially with the announcement in August of 2025 of Israel’s intention to take over the strategic Gaza City in the northern portion of the Gaza strip … completing Israel’s takeover of the entire region.

A war with Iran?  Then on February 25, 2026, Trump – in cooperation with Israel’s President Benjamin Netanyahu –  began the bombing of Iran.  At first Trump claimed this to be merely a preemptive strike on imminent Iranian threats (probably at the urging of Netanyahu, who was most anxious to see Iran removed as a threat to Israel) … suggesting that Iran was about to attack American troops based around the Middle East.  Trump also added the idea that this was a program to destroy Iran’s nuclear and missile-delivery capacity.  

Then on February 28th, the Israeli air force, supported by the U.S. navy, conducted an airstrike on the Tehran residence of Iran’s leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei … killling Khamenei and several other members of his family in the process.  Once the success of the secret operation was confirmed, Trump went on to explain that all this was designed to help the Iranian people take their government away from the hands of a cruel regime … thus turning this venture into another American “war to spread democracy.”  Certainly there were Iranians in agreement with this idea.  But many were those ever more deeply embittered against America for such an act.

At this point Trump was forced to  explain that in fact this was likely to become a longer-lasting conflict.  So the bombing of Iran continued … with (most unsurprisingly) Iran striking back with major attacks on American diplomatic and military facilities around the Middle East.  

Trump thus responded blocking all Iranian ports … hoping to force Iran to come to his terms by shutting down its economy.  Trump had the idea that all this would bring Iran to the negotiating table … and play out as a huge Trumpian success.  

A ceasefire?  The Iranians appeared to be curious, leading Trump to brag about the progress he was making with the Iranians – and then pleased to announce in early April that a ceasefire was now in place and supposedly all military action had ceased … even though tensions remained high.

 But nothing had really changed.

Most unsurprisingly, in the meantime, Iran had moved to block the oil exports of its neighboring countries ranged around the Persian Gulf … ordering its navy to shut off oil shipments through the Straits of Hormuz – through which around 20-30% of the world’s oil supply is sent … as well as the strategic flow of liquified natural gas (LNG).  

With all this, the Persian Gulf states were forced to shut down production as their reserves filled up … at the same time that the world once again experienced a horrible oil shortage … with prices at the pump climbing significantly.

All of this put huge pressures on the economies of America’s European allies (as well as other nations – China, India, Japan, South Korean, etc. ) … who had not been consulted in any of this and who were most unsupportive of this program of Trump’s – whatever it was supposed to be.

So where was all this economic pressure and counter-pressuring taking things? Basically America (and the world) was caught in a Trumpian conflict that seemed to have no very good ending.  And none of this was ever put before Congress for its approval.  This was strictly a Trumpian war … not an American war.

Iran and Lebanon go to war.  Then in March of 2026, Israel launched a huge attack on Lebanon (airstrikes and artillery shelling) … the level of violence mounting quickly.  Israel claimed that its intent was solely to target Hezbollah sites … from which Iran-backed Hezbollah had been attacking Israel with rockets and drones.   Obviously, Hezbollah had learned nothing from the disaster that Hamas brought on Gaza.

Israel then proceeded to move inhabitants out of southern Lebanon … claiming the area now to be an Israeli “security zone.”   Israel then proceeded to bulldoze vacated homes – the intention obviously being to make a return of Lebanese refugees most unlikely (some 1.2 million Lebanese had been forced to vacate their homes as of mid-May)

Then on April 8th, a cease-fire worked out in Pakistan between America and Iran  supposedly included the war in going on in Lebanon.  But Netanyahu was not moved by the new arrangement, and ignored it … with Israel’s own April 8th murderous attack on Lebanon, killing over 350 people in the first day of the operation alone (attacks again reaching even to the Lebanese capital, Beirut) … Israel again claiming that it was targeting only Hezbollah sites.  But homes, shops and hospitals were hit hard  … whether Hezbollah or not.

By the end of May, war statistics show that Israel conducted more than 3,300  airstrikes (in just the May 24-May30 period alone) in comparison to only 187 Arab airstrikes against Israel … with over 3,300 people killed in Lebanon (20% of them women and children) in comparison to 23 Israeli soldiers and a military contractor killed by Arab forces.  And Israel has extended its “security zone” some 20 miles into southern Lebanon … forcing some 1.2 million Lebanese  to leave their homes as refugees.  

And Netanyahu claims that the Israeli offensive will continue … until Hezbollah is destroyed.  

In other words, there seems to be no interest in Israel – despite the peace talks between America and Iran and the linkage of peace between those two powers on some kind of peace coming to Lebanon – in bringing the conflict to an end. Thus the world stands to suffer a continuing economic crisis (the crippling of the world’s oil industry) … because those economic interests do not seem to touch the heart of Netanyahu.  He has other goals in mind.