Six months after his strong return to the White House, promising to make America great again, US President Donald Trump faces a host of real global challenges that represent a true test of his strength. CNN reported that the war in Gaza and the Russia-Ukraine war are the current real tests of Trump's global power. Whether Trump truly represents a dominant global power will be demonstrated in his handling of these issues.
In Gaza, for example, CNN reports that there was a clear and surprising shift in Trump's rhetoric. Unusually, Trump issued statements contradicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claims about starvation in the Gaza Strip. While Netanyahu believes there is no famine in Gaza, Trump issued a series of statements calling for the need to feed children in Gaza. He even promised to establish food distribution centers to alleviate the worsening famine amid the inhumane Israeli blockade, and condemned the killing of civilians queuing up to receive humanitarian and food aid.
Trump has consistently denied US complicity in preventing food aid from reaching the Strip. There is a clear tone of growing anger toward Israel.
The second test of Trump's global power will come through Ukraine. Since the launch of his campaign that returned him to the White House, Trump has repeatedly promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Since taking office last January, Trump has called on the Russian and Ukrainian sides to sit down at the negotiating table and reach an agreement to end the war. Trump has repeatedly expressed his growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin's refusal to accept his proposals for a peace agreement in Ukraine. He has publicly criticized Putin's intransigence and has even shifted from simply flattering Putin to punishing him. Trump is capable of harming Russia through economic sanctions on Russian oil exports, which directly fund the war. This may require direct engagement with major powers such as India and China, which threatens to have serious global economic repercussions. On the domestic front, the CNN report argues that Trump is draining America's soft power in the long term. His America First doctrine, which seeks to exploit U.S. power against smaller nations, both allies and adversaries, will cause long-term damage to international alliances with the United States, which have been the key to American global power since the end of World War II.
But there are certainly major political victories that Trump has achieved on multiple fronts, not only with lucrative trade agreements, but he has also been able to extract promises from NATO for a massive increase in military spending and attempts to reach a new nuclear agreement with Iran. And within the United States, Trump has been able to effectively close the southern border, halt illegal immigration, even deport immigrants, and impose direct control over America's most prestigious universities.
