Data collection: Ksawery Stawiński, Dominik Wereszko ; Maps: Natalia Matiaszczyk ; Text: Jakub Graca
In the first six months of the second term, the president of the United States Donald Trump made 4 abroad trips, 3 of which were planned and had crucial political goals (a visit to the mediate East, a participation in the G7 summit in Canada and the NATO summit in The Hague), while 1 had a mainly symbolic dimension (participation in the ceremony of Pope Francis). However, even in the Vatican there was a short cultural conversation with the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenski.
In addition, the president of the United States took up a twelve leaders of allied and partner states in Washington (meetings from the first 5 weeks of the fresh administration were described in a separate text). The most common guest in the White home was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (two visits), while the biggest disappointment was the deficiency of a gathering with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and South Korean President, with respective months of political turmoil in Seoul which occurred as a consequence of the martial law in December 2024.
Numerous telephone calls from this period mainly with the leaders of the alliance and partner states, but besides with Xi Jinping (probably twice) and Vladimir Putin (at least six times) complete the image of the first half of the year, in which Trump's abroad policy focused primarily on mediate East, European and North American matters, putting to a further plan the most crucial indo-pacific theatres for US interests.
‘East Front’
Donald Trump's mediate East policy in the first half of the second word included primarily the improvement of partnership relations with the arabian Peninsula countries (which served as a visit by the U.S. president to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United arabian Emirates in May), as well as the deterrence and combating of Iran's influence in the region (through negotiations on a fresh atomic agreement, supporting Israel, taking sides with the fresh authorities in Syria and abolishing sanctions against the country, bombing the Hutich in Yemen, and yet carrying out operations to bomb Iran's atomic installations). The 3rd direction of this policy was to search an agreement that would end the war in Gaza.
As in the first word of office, the first scheduled abroad visit (so apart from the unexpected participation in the ceremony of the Pope) Trump filed in Riyadh to then go to ad-Dauha and Abu Dhabi. Meetings with the leaders of the 3 arabian monarchies were primarily business and resulted in the signing of contracts and declarations of cooperation in various areas (technology, weapons, aviation, etc.) whose value after implementation could scope from respective 100 billion to even respective trillion dollars. However, the reasons why these countries are investing in cooperation with the US are mostly political, since each of them is dependent on Washington in the area of safety and Tehran is the main rival in the region. Close relations between the US and the arabian Peninsula countries besides prevent China from building influence in the region.
In the safety area, Trump became active in the mediate East affairs to a greater degree than planned, which he was forced to do by the surrounding and Israel's aggressive policy. Trump's most crucial goals after his return to power in January were to make a fresh atomic agreement with Iran and end the war in Gaza combined with the release of Hamas captives. However, the ceasefire in Gaza negotiated before 20 January ended on 18 March, while the effort to get Iran to talk did not bring tangible results. Meanwhile, the U.S. undertook a lasting respective weeks of campaigning to bomb the positions supported by Iran's Huti militants in Yemen (whose goal was to put force on Iran to sit at the conversation table). The U.S.-Iranian negotiations began formally in April, but have not yet concluded an agreement.
Although Trump repeatedly reiterated that he would not let Iran to get atomic weapons and considered a place raid on Tehran's atomic installations, Israel yet decided to carry out a large-scale military operation against Iran, which met with Tehran's retaliation and the outbreak of Iran-Israeli war. Trump, however, supported Netanyahu and active not only in Israel's defence against rocket attacks from Iran, but carried out an operation to bomb Iran's atomic installations.
In the safety area, an crucial event was the Trump gathering with the fresh Syrian leader Ahmad Hussein as-Sharaa, held in the presence of Mohamed bin Salman at the margins of the U.S. President's visit to Riyadh. The conversation resulted in the United States abolishing sanctions on Syria. To prevent Damascus from being drawn into the orbit of Tehran's influence is simply a common goal of Washington and Tel Aviv, although beginning up to Syria through Trump, behind the proposition of bin Salman, was most likely held against Netanyahu's expectations.
European Front
Donald Trump's European policy during the period afraid primarily the renegotiation of trade cooperation (which was intended to introduce customs on European goods), the transfer to European allies within NATO of a greater burden of work for European safety (by pushing forward proposals to spend 5% of GDP on defence by all the States of the Alliance) and the effort to end the Russian-Ukrainian war through negotiations.
In the first mentioned areas, Trump has not achieved crucial benefits so far, while its aggressive chaotic customs policy has led to a crucial decline in the trust of European allies in the US. In the second area, however, the unanimous commitment by the 32 NATO States at the Hague Summit to rise defence spending to 5% of GDP over a 10-year period, which seemed unrealistic a fewer months earlier.
In the 3rd area, Trump's policy proved to be ineffective: Russia despite six Trump telephone calls with Vladimir Putin and a wide scope of cooperation from the US did not show the will to end the war, while for respective months Washington was deceiving Washington by taking the game on time. After the last conversation with Putin in early July, the president of the United States changed rhetoric importantly and proceeded to make a clear policy adjustment to Russia.
‘Pacific Front’
The Indo-Pacific area is simply a precedence for Washington, although in the past six months Donald Trump paid him comparatively least attention, and the meetings and talks he had afraid more economy and trade than security. The duties imposed by Trump in early April on many allied states, including Japan (46%), South Korea (50%) and Australia (10%), although they were rapidly reduced, have contributed to undermining the trust of these countries in Washington. Although Quad and AUKUS formats are formally maintained (the second is presently under review by the Department of Defense), only 2 bilateral meetings at the highest level were held with allies from the region (Japan and India). Due to Trump's premature departure from the G7 summit in Canada, there was no gathering with the Australian Prime Minister, who was besides a guest of the summit. The leaders of NATO partner countries from the Indo-Pacific region (the alleged AP4 or IP4 group, including Australia, Japan, South Korea and fresh Zealand) with the exception of the fresh Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon besides did not participate in the NATO summit in The Hague, although they had almost participated in it for 3 years in a row (only at the Washington summit in 2024 did not appear the Australian Prime Minister).
Probably 2 discussions with Xi Jinping besides mostly afraid economical issues, especially the second one, which occurred after the US imposed advanced duties on China, which faced China's retortion. Following a brief exchange of blows, which led to the increase of duties to 145% (US duties) and 125% (Chinese duties), negotiations on the Washington-Pekin line took place, resulting in reduced duties and a trade agreement. In July, during the ASEAN summit in Malaysia, Marco Rubio said that there are good chances that there will be a gathering between US and Chinese leaders this year.
