Trump’s Foreign Policy Moments

Trump directs the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a twelve-country, Asia-focused trade agreement the United States had championed under the Barack Obama administration. President Obama signed the agreement in 2016, though it was never ratified.

The president signs an executive order banning nationals of six Muslim-majority countries from traveling to the United States for ninety days. The order, later amended to include an additional two countries, also indefinitely freezes refugee intake from Syria. Days later, a federal judge in Washington state blocks part of the order, beginning a series of judicial challenges. That same week, Trump signs two other executive orders concerning immigration. One directs federal funds to the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the other bars so-called sanctuary cities from receiving federal grants.

Trump makes his first international trip as president, traveling to Belgium, Italy, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the West Bank, and Vatican City. He attends a summit in Riyadh with leaders from more than fifty Arab- and Muslim-majority nations, where he delivers a speech calling on the Muslim world to unite against terrorism. In Brussels, Trump addresses North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) heads of state and government, calling on each of them to “finally contribute their fair share” to the alliance. In Italy, Trump participates in the Group of Seven (G7) meeting, where the United States joins a joint declaration on fighting protectionism but withholds its support from one reaffirming the Paris climate accord.

In a speech, Trump announces that the United States will withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord, another agreement negotiated by Obama. Trump criticizes the 195-country agreement, under which the United States would have voluntarily limited its carbon emissions, for constricting U.S. sovereignty, harming American workers, and disadvantaging the United States economically.

Trump announces a partial rollback of the Obama administration’s rapprochement with Cuba. Under the newly announced guidelines, the United States will reinstate restrictions on travel and trade with Cuba without severing diplomatic ties. In September 2017, the Trump administration reduces the U.S. embassy staff in Havana by half.

In a visit to Warsaw, Trump delivers an address in which he emphasizes a civilizational struggle for the West and, for the first time, explicitly references NATO’s mutual defense clause. In Germany, Trump attends the Group of Twenty (G20) leaders’ meeting, where he meets for the first time as president with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting is highly anticipated during ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions announce that the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will begin winding down in six months, leaving approximately eight hundred thousand beneficiaries—non-U.S. citizens who entered the country as children—vulnerable to deportation. Trump encourages Congress to legislate a successor to DACA.

Trump, addressing the UN General Assembly for the first time, threatens to “totally destroy” North Korea if the United States is “forced to defend itself or its allies.” Echoing his inaugural address, Trump emphasizes sovereignty and tells the gathered world leaders that the United States does “not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to watch.”

Trump travels to China, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Vietnam on his longest trip yet. In addition to introducing a new vision for U.S. involvement in the “Indo-Pacific,” North Korea and trade dominate the agenda. In Vietnam, Trump attends the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and delivers an address reinforcing his America First vision on trade. In Manila, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summits, officials from the United States, Australia, India, and Japan convene a quadrilateral meeting of like-minded democracies with concerns about China’s rise.

In early April, China imposes retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products worth about $3 billion, escalating a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. By November, the United States has levied tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, while China has imposed tariffs on $110 billion worth of U.S. products. At the G20 summit in Buenos Aires in early December, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agree to a figurative cease-fire, as well as to strike a broader trade agreement within ninety days.

Trump institutes a blanket “zero-tolerance” policy in May that allows the Department of Justice to prosecute all adult immigrants caught crossing the border illegally. It results in U.S. Border Patrol separating more than 2,600 children from their parents, before Trump reverses the policy in August. In response to a spike in Central American asylum seekers, Trump sends five thousand troops to “harden the southern border.”

The president announces the U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, seven months after announcing he will not recertify Iran’s compliance. Trump says the agreement did not sufficiently curb the country’s civilian nuclear program or its regional aggression. Trump announces that the United States will reinstate two sets of sanctions on Iran that had been waived with the deal’s implementation; they will take effect in August and November and range from aircraft imports to oil and petroleum product exports.

After recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, the Trump administration moves the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in what is a break with decades of U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The move upsets Arab and Western allies and further brings Washington’s neutrality as a broker in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process into question. Trump justifies the move as a recognition of the reality that Jerusalem is the seat of Israel’s government.

Despite previously threatening to rain “fire and fury” on Pyongyang, Trump accepts North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s invitation to meet in Singapore. It is the first-ever summit between a sitting U.S. president and their North Korean counterpart. Their joint declaration steers the U.S.-North Korea relationship from confrontation to cooperation, but it establishes few means to enforce its ambitious commitments, which include the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula.

Ambassador Nikki Haley announces that the United States will withdraw from the Human Rights Council, citing “a chronic bias against Israel” and the human rights abuses of various sitting members, which include China and Venezuela.

Trump and Putin meet in Helsinki for a two-hour meeting behind closed doors, accompanied only by two interpreters. The leaders claim to discuss the Syrian civil war, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and Russia’s encroachment on Ukraine, the substance of their discussion remains largely unknown. The meeting culminates in a press conference during which Trump casts doubt on U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

The United States, Canada, and Mexico settle on a number of changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trump had long criticized NAFTA on the grounds that it increased the U.S. trade deficit, exposed the U.S. economy to unfair foreign subsidies, and reduced manufacturing jobs. The new trade deal, known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, contains new labor stipulations, stronger protections for U.S. intellectual property, and higher standards for the auto industry, including rules of origin and minimum wage hikes that benefit American manufacturers.

In early October, Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist, is assassinated inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. As evidence incriminating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman mounts, Trump expresses support for the Saudi leadership, touting Saudi Arabia as a major U.S. regional partner, oil supplier, and purchaser of U.S. arms. The decision draws backlash from U.S. allies and Congress.

Trump announces the United States will withdraw all of its more than two thousand troops from Syria, though he doesn’t specify a timeline. He asks the Pentagon to come up with a plan to also withdraw half of those serving in Afghanistan, where the U.S. mission has adopted a counterterrorism-focused approach. Many Democrats and Republicans in Congress call the decision to withdraw precipitous, and Mattis offers his resignation the next day, saying the president deserves a secretary “better aligned” with his views.

A dispute with Congress over Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion for a wall along the southern U.S. border ends after a thirty-five-day shutdown of the federal government, the longest to date. When Congress rejects the funding request, the president declares a national emergency in February, allowing him to divert funding from other sources, including the military. Trump issues his first veto to block a congressional resolution that would have prevented the move.

As trade talks break down, the United States raises tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10 to 25 percent, leading China to retaliate in kind. In the following months, the Trump administration also imposes new restrictions on Chinese telecom firms, labels China a currency manipulator, and threatens to halt all private U.S. investment in China. Trump’s plan to raise tariffs on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese goods is, however, put on hold.

Trump becomes the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in North Korea, crossing the Demilitarized Zone for a brief meeting with Kim. Coming months after a February summit in Vietnam collapsed almost as soon as it began, neither side offers concrete concessions and North Korea soon resumes missile tests.

Trump announces a “safe third country” agreement with Guatemala that would require asylum seekers to remain there, rather than wait in the United States while their claims are processed, or face deportation. The deal is challenged in Guatemalan court, but similar arrangements with El Salvador and Honduras are soon announced. The moves come after Trump launches a new program that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases are processed in U.S. immigration courts, and he uses the threat of tariffs to pressure Mexico to step up its own border security efforts.

The House of Representatives begins a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump over allegations that he withheld military aid to Ukraine to pressure it to investigate his political rival, Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump denies there was a “quid pro quo” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The following February, the U.S. Senate acquits Trump in a 52–48 vote, less than a month after the House of Representatives impeaches him in what is the third presidential impeachment in U.S. history.

In the wake of a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Trump decides to withdraw all remaining U.S. troops from Kurdish-controlled northern Syria. Two days later, Turkish troops invade Syria to combat Kurdish groups, which Ankara labels terrorists, and the Kurds seek protection from Assad’s regime and his Russian allies. The Trump administration responds with sanctions on Turkey, a NATO ally, leading to talks for a permanent cease-fire. The deal allows the Syrian Kurds to evacuate and divides control of the territory along the Syria-Turkey border among Russian, Syrian, and Turkish government forces.

In the wake of a September attack on Saudi oil facilities that Riyadh blames on Iran, Trump reinforces the kingdom with three thousand U.S. troops as well as fighter jets and missile technology. The show of support comes several months after bipartisan efforts in Congress to end Washington’s backing of Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen forced Trump to veto bills that would have ended U.S. involvement in the war and blocked U.S. arms sales to Riyadh.

Trump announces that the leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been killed by U.S. forces. His immediate successor is also killed in a separate raid. Baghdadi, who once controlled thousands of square miles of territory across the Middle East, was in hiding in northern Syria, eight months after the Islamic State lost the last remnant of its caliphate in Syria.

In a joint White House appearance, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announce a new plan to end decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Analysts say the deal, developed without Palestinian input, favors Israel by awarding it large portions of the West Bank and Jerusalem, and by weakening long-standing U.S. support for a fully autonomous Palestinian state. Palestinian leaders roundly reject the proposal, which is opposed by most Arab states and received ambivalently by European countries.

U.S. and Taliban officials ink a deal to begin reducing hostilities, heralded as a major step in the drawn-out effort to end Afghanistan’s eighteen-year war. In exchange for a withdrawal of U.S. troops within fourteen months, the Taliban agrees to open talks with the Afghan government and prevent terrorist groups from using Afghanistan to attack the United States or its allies. The agreement also calls for a permanent cease-fire to be worked out during intra-Afghan negotiations. Some experts see the deal as one-sided and question whether the Taliban will follow through on its ill-defined commitments.

After initially downplaying the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump declares a national emergency as cases balloon. The move unlocks roughly $50 billion in federal funding and allows the loosening of some regulations on health-care providers. Trump also announces new efforts to boost coronavirus testing, after what many see as an anemic federal response, and later signs more than $2 trillion in economic stimulus legislation. His administration also launches a public-private partnership that coordinates the development of a vaccine, which becomes available the following January. At the UN General Assembly annual debate in September, Trump again blames China for the pandemic and accuses it of environmental pollution and trade abuses.

The Trump administration formally notifies the United Nations that the United States will cut ties with the World Health Organization (WHO), which it helped found, effective July 2021. Trump previously accused the UN agency of misleading the world about the threat of COVID-19 under pressure from China; he had also announced the redirection of U.S. funding, the WHO’s largest source of financial support. In September, the United States refuses to join a WHO-led global initiative, known as the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX Facility), to develop, manufacture, and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine.

In a September ceremony at the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu signs U.S.-brokered agreements—known as the Abraham Accords—to normalize relations with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Trump heralds the event as the “dawn of a new Middle East.” Experts say the deals further unite Israel and Arab Gulf states against Iran, while Palestinian leaders decry them as a betrayal. In the following months, Trump announces that Morocco and Sudan will also begin rapprochements with Israel. In exchange, the United States grants Sudan financial assistance and delists it as a state sponsor of terrorism. It also recognizes Morocco’s claim to the disputed region of Western Sahara.

The State Department announces a plan to slash refugee admissions to a maximum of fifteen thousand people in the 2021 fiscal year, the lowest level in the four-decade history of modern U.S. refugee resettlement. It cites prioritizing Americans’ safety and well-being during the pandemic, among other factors, as a reason for the move. Trump’s response to the novel coronavirus reinforces his restrictive immigration policy. Since March, the administration has temporarily halted refugee resettlement, effectively shuttered the asylum system, and blocked many foreign worker visas and green cards.

The United States formally exits the Treaty on Open Skies, six months after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced it, citing Russian noncompliance. Experts say the withdrawal, which faced domestic and international opposition, is a setback to international arms control efforts. In force since 2002, the treaty allows member countries to surveil each other’s military installations and activities on short notice via flyovers by unarmed aircraft. Signatories also share the information they gather with other states party to the deal. Weeks after the U.S. exit, Russia announces it will also withdraw from the treaty.