How has President Donald Trump – the ‘dealmaker’ – done on foreign policy?

Published

5 months ago

March 20, 2025

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The 30-day pause in airstrikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure that Donald Trump got Vladimir Putin to agree to lasted perhaps a few hours.

The White House had claimed “we’ve never been closer to a peace deal” before the phone call between the two leaders yesterday.

Instead, Mr Trump appears to have achieved little in his conversation with Mr Putin, whose ‘red lines’ seem very much intact as his troops continue to hammer the Ukrainian frontlines and with Volodymyr Zelenskyy accusing him of hitting Ukrainian energy infrastructure overnight

It’s been a whirlwind first couple of months of the second Trump administration, both stateside and abroad.

As the fallout from the latest development in the Ukraine war continues, let’s look at how the dealmaker-in-chief has fared in his various international interactions.

Cutting Ukraine out of negotiations

Mr Trump famously promised to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours of being sworn in as commander in chief for a second time (he now says he was being sarcastic), but certainly, a swift peace is firmly on his wishlist.

In the last few weeks he has cut off and resumed military aid and intelligence sharing to Ukraine, berated Volodymyr Zelenskyy in public and started peace negotiations with Russia without Kyiv’s involvement.

Now the 30-day pause on attacks on energy facilities that Mr Putin agreed to on the phone appears to have been abandoned the same day, with drone strikes launched against Ukraine overnight.

What is clear, however, is that Mr Trump’s comments (and those of his associates) around NATO allies not spending enough appear to have galvanised Europe.

Countries including the UK have pledged to boost defence spending and shoulder more of the security burden – though potentially pivoting away from lucrative American arms sales at the same time.

Trade war with Canada

Mr Trump’s signature economic policy – tariffs on imports – have opened up what essentially amounts to a trade war with America’s biggest trade partner: Canada.

His comments on making the Great White North into the “51st state” have not helped, with new Canadian PM Mark Carney vowing his country will “never ever be part of the US”.

The American president has slapped 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products from 2 April.

Canada, which is the biggest foreign supplier of steel and aluminium to the US, announced 25% retaliatory tariffs on those metals along with computers, sports equipment and other products worth $20bn in total.

That’s on top of tariffs imposed on 4 March worth a similar amount on US goods in response to broader tariffs by Mr Trump.

Impact of tariffs elsewhere

Canada is far from the only nation to be hit with sweeping trade tariffs by the Trump administration.

Mr Trump also imposed tariffs on Mexico – a key US trade partner – due to the fentanyl crisis in the US and illegal immigration. Mexico, along with Canada, hit back with retaliatory tariffs.

Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to appease Mr Trump, including by sending 10,000 national guard soldiers to the border with the US – a win for Mr Trump, though it only amounts to an extra five guards per mile of the border.

The EU’s Ursula von der Leyen criticised new US tariffs on steel and aluminium, and the bloc pledged to raise its tariffs on American products.

China, which has been hit by a 20% tariff by Mr Trump, said it was “ready” for “any type of war” with the US.

The trade escalation between the two countries also spooked markets, contributing to a widespread stock market sell-off.

What’s more, there’s a possibility that China could benefit from the global tariffs regime in the long run.

End of the Gaza ceasefire?

Despite it being signed during the final days of US President Joe Biden’s time in office, Mr Trump took a great deal of credit for the ceasefire deal signed between Israel and Hamas back in January.

It seems that his impending inauguration served to spur things on and help get the deal over the line.

In December, he made a public demand for the release of the hostages, threatening “ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East”, while his envoy put pressure on Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

The eventual deal did bring some success – around 30 hostages were released along with more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

But Israel launched airstrikes on Gaza this week, bringing the fragile ceasefire to an end without moving to phase two, which would have seen conversations around a permanent ceasefire.

Greenland and Panama

Mr Trump has also spoken repeatedly about his desire to annex Greenland, despite protests from Denmark and Greenlanders themselves.

“I think that will happen,” he said earlier this month when asked about the US taking over the territory – something around 85% of Greenlanders oppose.

He said the US already has a military presence in Greenland and added: “Maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers going there.”

The row has caused tensions between America and Denmark, which is a US ally and a member of NATO.

Mr Trump has also promised to take over the Panama Canal, a key trade route for international shipping.

He expressed a desire for America to “take back” the crucial waterway from alleged Chinese control.

Earlier this month, a Hong Kong firm sold two major ports on the Panama Canal to a US firm. Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings said the move was “wholly unrelated to recent political news” but the development was nonetheless welcomed by Mr Trump.

US

Donald Trump says he wants to meet North Korea’s Kim Jong Un again – as soon as ‘this year’

Published

16 hours ago

August 26, 2025

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Donald Trump says he wants to meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un again - as soon as 'this year'

Donald Trump has said he wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again.

Speaking at the White House as he held talks with the new South Korean president Lee Jae Myung, Mr Trump told reporters: “I’d like to meet him this year… I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong Un in the appropriate future.”

“I’d like to have a meeting. I got along great with him,” President Trump said, adding they “became very friendly” during his first term in office.

“We think we can do something in that regard,” he said, adding that he would like to help the relationship between the two Koreas.

Mr Trump and Mr Kim held three meetings between 2018 and 2019 during Mr Trump’s first term and exchanged a number of, what the president called, “beautiful” letters.

In June 2019, Mr Trump briefly stepped into North Korea from the demilitarized zone (DMZ) with South Korea.

The US president on Monday responded to a question about whether he would return to the DMZ by fondly recalling the last time he did so.

“Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy?” especially the Secret Service, Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

But “I loved it”, Mr Trump said. He added he felt safe because he had a good relationship with Mr Kim.

Mr Trump became the first sitting American president to set foot on North Korean soil six years ago.

However, little progress was made in curbing North Korea’s nuclear programme, and Mr Trump acknowledged in March this year that Pyongyang is a “nuclear power”.

Kim possible: Is Trump seeking another ‘Hermit Kingdom’ handshake?

It was Donald Trump’s first meeting with the new president of South Korea.

A highly unconventional platform for glowing words about the North Korean one.

He said he got along “great” with Kim Jong Un and would like to meet him again “this year”.

The US president’s renewed interest in North Korea appears less about policy and more about theatrics.

The historic image of President Trump stepping on to North Korean soil in 2018 gave him global headlines.

The timing is curious – North Korea has been busy polishing its nuclear credentials and vowing not to disarm without serious concessions.

In other words, Pyongyang is holding the same cards it held four years ago, only now they’re shinier.

But Trump seems eager to revive his image as the only US president bold, or brash, enough to break bread with the ruler of the “Hermit Kingdom”.

Supporters call it visionary diplomacy; critics call it reality TV masquerading as foreign policy.

Either way, President Trump clearly sees value in the spectacle.

Whether Kim Jong Un does is another story.

Since Mr Trump’s first-term meetings with Mr Kim ended, North Korea has shown no interest in returning to talks.

The White House said in June that Mr Trump would welcome communications with Mr Kim.

The attempts at rapprochement come after the election in South Korea of Mr Lee, who has pledged to reopen dialogue with North Korea.

As a gesture of engagement in June, Mr Lee suspended South Korean loudspeakers blasting music and messages into the North at the DMZ along their shared border.

Analysts say, however, that engaging North Korea will likely be more difficult for both Mr Lee and Mr Trump than it was in the president’s first term.

Since then, North Korea has significantly expanded its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

And it has developed close ties with Russia through direct support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with Pyongyang providing both troops and weaponry.

Mr Kim told Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country will always stand with Moscow, state media reported in June.

US

Lil Nas X pleads not guilty after being charged with assaulting police officer

Published

16 hours ago

August 26, 2025

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Lil Nas X pleads not guilty after being charged with assaulting police officer

US rapper Lil Nas X has pleaded not guilty after being charged with assaulting a police officer while walking in downtown Los Angeles in his underwear.

The musician, real name Montero Lamar Hill, was taken to hospital and arrested after police responded to reports of a naked man shortly before 6am on Thursday.

The district attorney’s office said on Monday that Lil Nas X faces three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one count of resisting an executive officer.

He was being held on a $75,000 (£55,457) bail, conditional on attending drug treatment. It is not immediately clear whether he had posted it and been released yet.

He is set to return to court on 15 September for his next pre-trial hearing.

During the hearing on Monday, Hill’s lawyer Christy O’Connor told the judge he had led a “remarkable” life, adding: “Assuming the allegations here are true, this is an absolute aberration in this person’s life.

“Nothing like this has ever happened to him.”

A law enforcement source told Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, on Thursday that the Old Town Road and Industry Baby hitmaker punched an officer twice in the face during the encounter.

The source added officers were unsure whether he was on any substances or in mental distress.

NBC News cited TMZ footage where Hill was seen walking down the middle of Ventura Boulevard at 4am on Thursday in a pair of white briefs and cowboy boots.

In the videos, Hill tells a driver to “come to the party” in one clip and in another tells the person: “Didn’t I tell you to put the phone down?”

“Uh oh, someone’s going to have to pay for that,” Hill says as he continues to walk away.

In some clips, Hill struts as if he’s on a catwalk, posing for onlookers, and at one point he places an orange traffic cone on his head.

US

Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Man wrongly deported from US to El Salvador detained by ICE again

Published

16 hours ago

August 26, 2025

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Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Man wrongly deported from US to El Salvador detained by ICE again

A man who was wrongly deported from the US to El Salvador has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) again.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 30-year-old originally from El Salvador, handed himself into the ICE field office in Baltimore, Maryland, for a check-in on Monday.

The visit was a mandatory condition of his release from federal custody earlier this weekend. However, in a court filing on Saturday, his lawyers said they expected Garcia would be detained again upon attending.

Garcia is charged in an indictment, filed in federal court in Tennessee, with conspiring to transport illegal immigrants into the US.

According to a court filing by his lawyers, immigration officials made an offer to Garcia to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to the charges.

Otherwise, they would seek to deport him to Uganda.

Speaking at a news conference outside the ICE office on Monday morning, Garcia said via a translator: “This administration has hit us hard, but I want to tell you guys something: God is with us, and God will never leave us.

“God will bring justice to all the injustice we are suffering.”

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Garcia’s lawyers, also said: “There was no need to take him into ICE detention… the only reason they took him into detention was to punish him.”

A judge later ruled Garcia could not be deported after he filed a challenge asking to be allowed due process to fight any removal attempt.

Judge Paula Xinis ruled the 30-year-old must remain detained in the US until she can hold an evidentiary hearing – set for Wednesday.

She added there appeared to be “several grounds” for her to have jurisdiction to exercise relief, including that Uganda has not agreed to offer Garcia protections, such as being able to walk freely, being given refugee status, and not being re-deported to El Salvador.

After initially being detained in Maryland – where he lived with his American wife and children – by ICE in March, Garcia was sent to El Salvador, where he was then imprisoned in the country’s maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).

This was despite an immigration judge’s 2019 order granting him protection from deportation after finding he was likely to be persecuted by local gangs if he was returned to his native country.

The Trump administration admitted deporting Garcia was an “administrative error”, but said at the time they could not bring him back as they do not have jurisdiction over El Salvador.

After eventually returning him to the US in June, the Trump administration detained Garcia on criminal charges that were filed in May.

The criminal indictment alleges Garcia worked with at least five co-conspirators to bring immigrants to the US illegally and transport them from the border to other destinations in the country.

Minutes after his release on Friday, officials notified Garcia they intended to deport him to Uganda.

Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, US President Donald Trump, vice president JD Vance and other officials claim Garcia was a member of MS-13 – an international criminal gang formed by immigrants who had fled El Salvador‘s civil war to protect Salvadoran immigrants from rival gangs.

Garcia’s lawyers strongly deny the claims.