WASHINGTON— donald trump will not take office until January 20, but on stage world He already acts as if he were the president of the United States.
The Republican is stamping his stamp on American diplomacy, at least in the crisis from Syria and Ukraine.
World leaders flocked to speak with him and he was treated as the guest of honor at the grand reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris over the weekend.
The outgoing president, Democrat Joe Biden, 82 years old, was absent from the ceremony and his presence is fading.
“It’s not at all surprising that Trump is already looking to start playing the role of shadow president,” said Colin Clarke, director of research at security consultancy The Soufan Group. “And I don’t even think it’s inappropriate right now.”
Trump faces a more volatile international situation than during his first term.
“The world seems to be a little crazy right now,” Trump said as he met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday on his first trip abroad since the Nov. 5 election.
“Unusual”
Trump, who advocates non-interventionism, says he intends to keep the United States out of wars in the Middle East and is inclined to reduce American aid to kyiv.
As former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad faltered on Saturday, Trump said on his Truth Social network that the United States “should not get involved.” But Assad’s sudden fall at the hands of Islamist-led rebels will complicate his desire to ignore this region.
On Sunday he estimated that Russia has abandoned its ally Assad because it is focused on the war in Ukraine, and it is “time to act” for Vladimir Putin and seek a ceasefire with kyiv.
On another front, Trump, who has pledged strong support for Israel, has warned that Gaza militants will pay a high price if they do not free the hostages when he takes office. A hundred Israelis have been kidnapped since October 7, 2023, after the Hamas terrorist attack on Jewish territory.
Earlier this month, he used a series of late-night posts on Truth Social to announce his intention to impose tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China if they did not stop the flow of migrants and drugs into the United States.
“His recent statements and actions on US foreign policy may be unusual compared to other incoming US presidents, but they are completely consistent with his own past conduct,” explained Brian Finucane, an adviser to the International Crisis Group.
“Advance”
Trump’s shadow presidency is even more potent because foreign leaders increasingly view the aging Biden as “basically nonexistent,” Clarke said.
“Most world leaders are prepared to move forward and start thinking about how to deal with an incoming Trump administration,” he added.
Among them is the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who, although he fears that Trump could push Ukraine into a deal that would cause it to lose territory to Russia, met with the American president-elect in Paris under the leadership of Macron.
This creates a delicate situation for Biden, who is trying to shore up his foreign policy legacy against the man he once called a “threat” to democracy and whom he persecuted through state institutions to imprison him and prevent his return to the House. White.
The outgoing Democrat has boosted military aid to Ukraine in his final months and has partly taken credit for the fall of Assad and the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.
But Trump will inherit from Biden one of the thorniest foreign policy challenges of any president in decades. Biden leaves two wars and the Syrian conflict.
“That is part of being president (…) He is not only the president in good times, but also in difficult times,” Clarke concluded.
