The Trump team's trip to Greenland is unwelcome. The islanders don't want to become an American colony. This is another example of using bullying instead of statecraft: https://www.reuters.com/world/united-states-is-putting-unacceptable-pressure-greenland-danish-pm-says-2025-03-25/
Donald Trump has now threatened to bomb Iran: “bombing the likes of which they have never seen before” https://apnews.com/article/iran-rejects-direct-negotiations-trump-letter-us-c414743a567c574b6f48f64a2e889f31 This doesn’t look like a wise form of negotiation.
Trump’s negotiations with Iran appear to be good news, but his credibility is low – given that he walked away from the JCPOA, which had been a carefully negotiated international agreement https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2025/04/08/trump-rebuffs-netanyahu-and-gambles-on-a-deal-with-iran
Trump bullies other countries because he feels superior to them – but he causes offence: “Polls show that the vast majority of Greenlanders want to become independent from Denmark but do not wish to become part of the US” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly1pjnpyjpo
Mark Carney won the Canadian election by promising to stand up to Trump. He is also “ready to take a leadership role” in advocating multilateralism – in direct opposition to Trump’s isolationism and aggression towards Canada https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/carney-aims-global-leadership-role-against-trump-after-canada-election-win-2025-04-29/
The popular backlash against Donald Trump has caused the defeat of another right-wing politician: this time in Australia, following the Canadian pattern of standing up against American aggression https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/count-under-way-australia-election-with-living-costs-trump-focus-2025-05-03/
Iran’s response to Witkoff’s red line: “Unrealistic expectations stop negotiations, enrichment in Iran is not something that can be stopped …I think he is completely at a distance from the reality of the negotiations” https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-envoy-witkoff-cites-us-red-line-with-iran-against-uranium-enrichment-2025-05-18/
Trump’s foreign policy is “to spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of a gun. The military’s job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America, anywhere, anytime and any place” https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5317486-donald-trump-west-point-commencement-speech-golden-age/
Trump is characteristically talking big on Iran, which rejects his call to surrender. His confrontational approach is unlikely to work. The previous peace accord was reached by patient negotiation. He is grossly irresponsible https://apnews.com/article/trump-iran-nuclear-us-strike-israel-eeaad923bb2df019b05f31f2e11d486c
Trump and his MAGA base don’t value America’s soft power. Voice of America has been cut, and “Chinese state media is moving aggressively to fill the vacuum”. It is hard to see how Americans benefit https://www.axios.com/2025/07/17/trump-china-retreat-soft-power
The South China Morning Post reports on India-China relations: “deepening mutually beneficial cooperation ..and opposing unilateral bullying” after Trump’s latest tariffs https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3322471/china-india-talks-narendra-modi-praises-stable-predictable-constructive-ties
Who are Trump's allies? His praise for North Korea's leader is weird. Kim Jong Un has continued to develop nuclear weapons and long range missiles, threatening Japan and South Korea, and has supported Russia in the Ukraine war https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250825-trump-eyes-n-korea-meet-as-he-ambushes-s-korea-leader
Trump’s tariffs on India have backfired. India is/was a US ally, but Russia, India and China are all members of the BRICS and SCO groups of countries. They reject US hegemony and they support each other https://www.reuters.com/world/china/india-china-are-partners-not-rivals-modi-xi-say-2025-08-31/
Trump should not be surprised that after bullying countries with tariffs, and being so unpredictable, the rest of the world is rushing into the arms of China for strength and stability https://www.axios.com/2025/09/03/xi-parade-china-putin-kim-conspire
Trump's deployment of warships in the Caribbean is intended to intimidate Venezuela. He claims that it was to stop drug trafficking but it is an escalation in tactics. Perhaps it just makes him feel powerful https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78nl9lz8zeo
Trump is on an ego trip. He is positioning the US as acting where and whenever it chooses, ignoring international law. It is what motivates China, India and Russia to work together to oppose him https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-orders-return-us-war-department-2025-09-05/
Trump has accused the UN of sabotaging his visit, yet the facts are more nuanced: one of his own staff might have stopped the escalator and the White House runs the teleprompter. Trump's stance is undignified https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250924-escalatorgate-trump-demands-probe-into-un-triple-sabotage
China is gaining soft power by supporting a rules-based international order, acting to reduce carbon emissions, and with stable economic policies. This is in stark contrast to Trump's American foreign policy https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/world/asia/china-un-trump.html