Sanctions, Trade Wars, Historic Summits: Two Years of Trump Foreign Policy

Over the past two years, US President Donald Trump has shown that he is determined to follow through with his campaign promises and continue pushing forward his America First approach in the global arena.

Nothing Personal, It's Just Business: Fighting Tariff Wars & Killing Trade Deal

Trade relations have been of particular importance for Trump as a former businessman. He's been trying to either renegotiate or cancel such deals in a bid to achieve more favorable trading conditions and arrangements for the United States.

Executing a campaign promise, Trump directed the Office of the US Trade Representative to pull the US out of the Obama-championed "disastrous" Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) just days after being sworn-in.

Trump argued that the deal, agreed by almost a dozen nations, including the US, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Mexico, would harm American workers and damage the economy. The 11-country trade agreement took effect on December 30, 2018, and while the US is not part of it, some member states are still hopeful of Washington joining them someday.

The same fate has befallen the 1994 NAFTA deal, which Trump also pledged to renegotiate in order to address the US' trade deficit in goods, eliminate unfair subsidies and bringing manufacturing jobs back home. He fulfilled this promise, too, having replaced it with a new trilateral deal — the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) after a year of intense talks.

In line with his America First narrative, President Trump refused to put up with what he consistently described as "unfair trade practices" by China, opting to slap 25 percent tariffs on up to $50 billion worth of Chinese goods in June 2018.

Beijing accused Washington of initiating a trade war and threatened to retaliate with tit-for-tat measures.

The Trump administration threatened to up the ante, warning it would impose an additional 10 percent tariff on another $200 billion worth of Chinese imports if Beijing went ahead with its retaliatory measures. It didn't take the Chinese government long to provide a mirror response.

So far, the US has already hit China with tariffs on $250 billion worth of products and has threatened to levy the import tax on $267 billion more. Beijing, on the other hand, introduced tariffs on $110 billion worth of American goods, and has warned of implementing "quantitative and qualitative" measures that could affect US firms doing business with China.

On the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires in December 2018, the two economic superpowers secured a 90-day trade war truce; Trump agreed not to raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent starting on 1 January, while Chinese President Xi Jinping committed to purchasing more US goods to cut the trade deficit.

But China was by far not the only country in focus — "traditional" US allies didn't escape the 45th president's controversial trade protectionist policies. Trump appeared to be serious about no longer letting anyone "take advantage" of the United States, as he imposed 25 percent and ten percent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the European Unions and Canada, respectively.

READ MORE: EU Presents Plan for 'Limited' US Trade Deal — Reports

This move prompted the targeted countries to respond in turn.

Relocation of US Embassy to ‘Eternal Capital' of Israel

Delivering on yet another campaign promise, Donald Trump made a historic decision which changed the political landscape of the Middle East by moving the American Embassy in Israel to the "eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem".

On 6 December 2017, the US president officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced that he had instructed the Department of State to initiate the process of the embassy's relocation from Tel Aviv to the newly recognized capital.

While the announcement was unsurprisingly warmly received in Israel, it fueled tensions in the tumultuous region, sparking the indignation of Arab nations, who warned Trump against jeopardizing the peace process in the Middle East.

Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which governs the Gaza Strip and two areas of the West Bank under the 1993 Oslo Accords, claim the city of Jerusalem as their own.

This has proven to be a major stumbling-block in the international community's efforts to implement a two-state solution, which envisages an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River.

The official opening ceremony of the new US Embassy in Jerusalem was held on May 14, 2018, prompting waves of protests and bloody clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the Gaza Strip, resulting in the death of at least 55 protesters.

Countering Iran

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed in 2015 by Iran and the P5+1 nations — Russia, the US, China, France, the UK plus Germany — after years of negotiations. The multilateral accord sought to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for the gradual lifting of economic sanctions on Tehran.

READ MORE: Tehran to Pompeo: 'US Brings Chaos Whenever, Wherever It Interferes'

Since taking office, Trump has consistently criticized the Obama-era pact, describing it as an "embarrassment" and one of the worst deals the United States has ever signed up to.

He threatened to unilaterally withdraw from the deal on multiple occasions, with his administration stressing that the president wanted to fix the "egregious flaws" of the "horrible, one-sided" agreement.

After months of speculation and rumors of Trump planning to rip up the deal, the POTUS eventually announced on May 8, 2018 that he was pulling the US out of it and reinstating sanctions against Iran. The decision was met with regret and condemnation by the deal's other signatories and brokers, with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani pointing out that the US has a history of undermining international treaties.

The re-introduction of sanctions against various Iranian industries — including shipping, energy, and financial services — was doubled down by Trump's threat to impose secondary restrictions on foreign companies engaging in trade with Iran, thus driving out a significant number of firms from the Iranian market.

Following the US pullout, EU member states demonstrated their interest in maintaining trade ties with Tehran despite the threat of penalties. The EU updated its Blocking Statute to in a bid to shield European companies from Washington's secondary sanctions.

North Korea: From ‘Fire & Fury' to Historic Handshake and More

The path to talks on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula between Trump and Kim Jong-un, which marked the first time that a sitting US president ever met with a North Korean leader, has been quite precipitous.

Since the leader of the world's most secretive state threatened to launch ballistic missiles into the waters around the US naval base in Guam in August 2017, the POTUS issued a stark warning to unleash "fire and fury" on Pyongyang.

From that moment, President Trump has been calling on the international community to amplify pressure on the Asian country, with Kim's continued nuclear tests further raising tensions.

Trump, who has developed a certain reputation for being extremely creative when it comes to nicknames, branded the North Korean leader a "rocket man" on a "suicide mission", while Kim hit back calling the POTUS a "dotard" exhibiting "mentally deranged behavior". As the North Korean leader warned Trump about Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities, the US president even insisted that his "nuclear button" was "much bigger and more powerful", and it actually worked.

Still, despite the "never-ending" war of words, Trump claimed that he "tried so hard" to be Kim's friend — and his tweets were indeed prophetic given the special bond the two have developed during their first summit.

The two heads of state held landmark talks in Singapore in June 2018 and signed a comprehensive document, in which Kim committed to full denuclearization — a tangible achievement that one cannot deny. The photographs and videos from the day the two met made rounds on the internet, with social media users branding their handshake historic and even mulling Trump's chances of being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Currently, the two sides are working out the details for a second summit.

Tougher on Russia Than Any Other President?

Throughout the past 24 months, Trump has consistently been accused of indulging Russia's desires, although he himself claims he's been "far tougher" on Moscow than his predecessors.

While Robert Mueller's investigation into the alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin is still underway, the US president is seemingly still refusing to give in to media and Democrats' calls to unleash a full-blown crusade against Russia.

Cherishing the thought that someday the US will have good relations with Russia — just like he did with North Korea — he sought to improve bilateral ties and agreed to hold a summit with President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16, 2018.

Despite facing much criticism even before the meeting took place, both Trump and Putin declared their first large-scale talks a "success", having discussed a wide array of issues.

Since no communique followed the tete-a-tete rendezvous, the mainstream media and ardent Russophobes peddled various rumors and conspiracy theories.

Newspapers and magazine hit out at Trump for his alleged efforts to keep his interactions with Putin secret, and even accused him of being an agent of the Kremlin — something he considered very insulting.

Alarmed by the secrecy of the closed-door Helsinki summit, critics insisted on the urgent need to disclose the notes of interpreter Marina Gross, the only other American present at the talks, to find out what, if any, promises Trump made to Putin.

Both heads of state have vehemently denied colluding with one another; Trump has often dismissed the allegations as a "witch hunt", while the Kremlin has repeatedly pointed out the lack of evidence.

INF Treaty On the Brink of Collapse

Relations between Russia and the US remain rocky, and nuclear arms reduction has somehow returned to the spotlight in 2018. On October 20, Trump announced his intention to abandon the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, having accused Russia of violating the accord.

He, in fact, stated that the US would start developing weapons currently banned under the treaty.

Moscow hit at the allegations, stressing that Washington had deployed Tomahawk cruise missile launchers in Romania and Poland, thus breaching the treaty.

The US administration stated in early December that it would suspend its adherence to the accord unless Russia returned to fully "complying" with the treaty within 60 days.

Responding to the announcement, President Putin warned that such a move could result in unpredictable consequences and could lead to a global catastrophe due to the falling threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

The deal actually marked the first time the two superpowers — the Soviet Union and the US — voluntarily agreed to reduce their nuclear arsenals, destroying all nuclear-armed ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (about 300 to 3,400 miles), as well as allowing on-site inspections for verification.

Syria: Two Missile Strikes… and Troop Withdrawal

On the 77th day of his presidency, Trump ordered a missile strike against a Syrian airfield in response to an alleged chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun which killed 80 people.

The purported incident took place on April 4, 2017, with opposition groups, backed by the US, blaming the Syrian government for using chemical weapons and deliberately targeting civilians. Damascus, for its part, flatly rejected the accusations, laying blame on local militants.

A year later, the POTUS made an attempt to deliver on his campaign pledge to pull troops out of wars, particularly in the Middle East, breaking surprise news: American troops would be coming home soon.

But by a twist of fate, two weeks after the announcement, reports of another chemical weapons attack in Syria flooded in.

Having called out "gas killing animal" Bashar al-Assad, the US president ordered another round of airstrikes on the Arab Republic in April 2018.

This time the United States, supported by its traditional military allies — France and the UK — fired over 100 cruise and air-to-surface missiles at a number of targets in retaliation to another alleged chemical attack in the city of Douma, which was yet again blamed on the Syrian Army.

READ MORE: At Least 20 Civilians Killed by US-Led Coalition Strike in Deir Ez-Zor — Reports

Damascus and Moscow dismissed the incident as a false-flag operation, while the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) reported that the investigators found no traces of nerve agents either in environmental samples or samples collected from apparent victims.

Nine months after the trilateral strikes, President Trump made yet another attempt to finally deliver on his withdrawal campaign promise; on December 19, 2018, he announced his decision to bring the 2,000-strong force of US troops currently deployed in Syria home.

The POTUS declared that Daesh* is defeated, arguing the US had no reason to stay, adding that regional countries would be able to finish off the remaining terrorists.

Although, the exact timetable for the pull-out hasn't been provided, it seems that it will take a while, as Trump seeks to ensure the safety of Kurdish forces who are at risk of a Turkish incursion in northern Syria.

In addition, the planned homecoming may be complicated by a suicide bomb attack in the city of Manbij, which left 20 people killed, including a handful of US servicemen, earlier this week. Daesh, which, according to Trump's earlier comments, was crushed, reportedly claimed responsibility for the blast.

Obsolete NATO? ‘Fair Share' and Withdrawal Rumours

Since taking office, Trump has repeatedly lambasted his transatlantic allies for failing to meet their defense spending obligations within NATO.

Trump pointed out that only five of the 29 member states were spending two per cent of their GDP on defense and insisted that the other members of the alliance should pay their "fair share".

Moreover, the US president once questioned the Cold War-era bloc's relevance at the current conjuncture, calling it "obsolete" and "unfair" to Washington.
NATO members were dismayed by the remarks, fearing that Trump was looking to pull the US out of the transatlantic military alliance.

A New York Times piece might have fueled these concerns, as it alleged that over the course of 2018, Trump repeatedly told his top aides that he sought to withdraw from the alliance.

Senior administration officials feared such a development would undermine Washington's influence across the ocean and embolden Russia, according to reports.

Notwithstanding these rumors, Trump never publicly floated plans to pull the US out of NATO.