Trump's Foreign Policy Stalls Despite UN, Xi Showcases — SkimNews
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- Trump delivered a UN General Assembly speech Tuesday threatening to "annihilate" Iran and defending his Venezuela approach with "to the victor belong the spoils," but his Thursday summit with Xi Jinping produced only a two-month extension of a trade truce originally due to expire in November.
- Xi Jinping privately urged Trump to oppose Taiwan independence during closed-door talks, per Chinese state media, and Trump notably avoided public confrontation — a shift former Obama foreign policy adviser Brett Bruen attributed to Beijing's leverage over rare earth minerals.
- The Iran war, now nearly seven months old since its February 28 launch alongside Israel, has spread to Yemen and the Red Sea, disrupted global energy supplies, and become deeply unpopular with Trump's political base ahead of November midterms.
- French President Emmanuel Macron warned at the UN against a "return to the law of the jungle," while Brazilian President Lula decried foreign interference in Brazil's October election — pointed rebukes of Trump without naming him.
- Trump's Greenland push fell short of his demand to "own" the territory or take it by force, settling instead for an expanded US military presence under a deal with Denmark.
- Trump's Ukraine-Russia energy ceasefire effort failed to gain traction, and Eurasia Group's Ian Bremmer noted that a year ago few countries "dared cross Trump," but now Canada, Europe, China, Iran, and Russia are all "more willing to say no."
Why it matters: Trump's foreign policy is hitting compounding limits simultaneously: allies openly resisting at the UN, the Iran war dragging past seven months with no resolution, and the Xi summit yielding only a two-month trade truce extension. With Republican control of Congress at stake in November midterms, the article notes world leaders are already preparing for diminished US influence — constraining Trump's room to maneuver on every front from Ukraine to Greenland to Venezuela.
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