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From the first days of his second term, it was clear President Trump had an aggressive approach to how he would wield American power abroad. He's used tariffs as a weapon against allies, secured the release of hostages from Gaza, cozied up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and launched a pressure campaign against the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez has more on Trump's busy year and how he's reshaped U.S. foreign policy.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Ladies and gentlemen, the president-elect of the United States, the Honorable Donald John Trump.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: On his first days in office, President Trump threatened to take back control of the Panama Canal, seize Greenland and turn Canada into the 51st state - reflections of his fascination with expansionism and foreshadowing his determination to carve up the world between the three major powers.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on Earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world. A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
ORDOÑEZ: Unlike those who came before him, Trump rarely speaks about America's responsibilities of global leadership. He disdains alliances and paints European allies as weak. Stewart Patrick served in the George W. Bush State Department and is now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He says Trump's taken aim at the global systems that he's long complained were unfair to the U.S. taxpayer.
STEWART PATRICK: Trump's second term in office has represented a significant departure from Trump 1.0. It's far more of a revolutionary approach to international order, and the upheaval that he's created is just monumental.
ORDOÑEZ: Those shifts have stunned Western partners who have struggled to balance maintaining transatlantic ties while defending their own interests. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has complained that, quote, "the West as we know it no longer exists."
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URSULA VON DER LEYEN: Europe did not start this confrontation. We think it is wrong.
ORDOÑEZ: Trump has also had to push back against domestic allies who have accused him of spending too much time abroad and straying from his America First priorities. The White House told me Trump's acting on his campaign promises to advance American interests, delivering fair trade deals, pushing allies to increase defense spending, killing narco terrorists - those are their words - while also ending global conflicts to make the world safer.
LORI ESPOSITO MURRAY: I think it is really clear that the perceptions of America First as isolationist at the beginning of his administration was clearly wrong.
ORDOÑEZ: Lori Esposito Murray is a veteran in diplomatic circles who has advised both Republican and Democratic leaders. She says the main goal of America First is not to withdraw but to engage, to use American economic power to reshape global trade to press partners to carry their own weight. It's also about using American military power.
MURRAY: He's not hesitating to use force, but they're really carefully calculated situations - Iran, enabling Ukraine for long-range strikes into Russia, bombing the Houthis - they're carefully calculated use of force but definitely not hesitating to use U.S. military force to achieve his goals.
ORDOÑEZ: And perhaps nowhere is the link between Trump's domestic goals and foreign policy as intertwined as it is in the Western Hemisphere, where Trump has positioned a historic level of military acid.
BENJAMIN GEDAN: President Trump views the world in spheres of influence, this old-fashioned idea that's become in style again, that you divide up the globe amongst major powers, and for the United States, we're the major power in the Western Hemisphere. And he's really acted on that.
ORDOÑEZ: Benjamin Gedan led the Venezuela portfolio in the Obama White House. He says it's clear that the U.S. seeks to reassert its dominance in the region over other actors who have gained influence, such as Russia and China.
GEDAN: One thing that's notable is that China became a competitor to the United States and Latin America not by moving an aircraft carrier into the region, but through trade and investment in infrastructure and being an appealing partner for all these countries.
ORDOÑEZ: He says the U.S. should be working to be the partner of choice and not the partner who is feared.
Franco Ordoñez. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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