We cover international news at Foreign Policy. Ask us anything about Trump’s second-term approach to the world so far.

18 comments

1. When and where will it finally *-end-?*

   I’m tired, boss.

2. What are consequences of the US for abandoning its allies?

3. What has Trumps goal in condeming Ukraine been if he seeks to end the war, which was started by an illegal Russian invasion?

   Does Trumps administration favour a peace deal benefiting Ukraine more or one benefiting Russia more (handover of crimea), or perhaps a middle ground?

4. What is causing the conflicting reporting between Trump claiming that he’s spoke to China, but China outright denying talks?

   Do we think this is a “one party is lying” thing? Does the Trump team truly think they’re talking to someone representing the Chinese government? Is it simply a complete fabrication?

5. We’ve seen in past exposés that under President Biden, the US military had to threaten consequences on multiple occasions to keep Russia from using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. With the new Trump administration’s far more lax stance where it comes to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, is there a credible threat that Russia may employ tactical nuclear weapons sometime in the next months/years?

6. There is an disturbing approach between Trump and Putin, to the point that I read news about the FDA suspending the food quality checks due the low ammount of workers, but it might be taken as an excuse for Trump’s administration to fully suspend those checks.

   Meanwhile there are news about potential food shortages due the lack of workers in the farms. Even if the worst scenario is avoided, there will be room to be filled.

   What I want to ask is: **is possible that Trump will ask Putin to send to the US tons of low quality food just to avoid the shortages? Even if that means that the food quality will noticeably be lower?**

7. Are there effective solutions that counter modern dis/misinformation and propaganda campaigns, and how are they the most effective? Are they only effective when a large governmental approach is used? What’s the best approach to implementing these counters?

8. Is he going to be a menace to Canada for the rest of his Presidency? It’s tiring

9. Allies seem to be adjusting to the renewed unpredictability of American foreign policy due to Trump’s highly personalized and erratic decision-making that is sometimes subject to sudden reversal. European allies appear to be accelerating independent defense efforts, for example.

   Are we risking a future where countries begin to isolate the United States? If so, what are the biggest risks you see to international stability and for the United States domestically in terms of its security and economy?

10. Trump tends to hoover-up / blot-out other major stories that people should be paying attention to. What are some of those events/issues happening right now that would be larger if Trump were not in the way?

11. Going into inauguration day, it seemed like there was a chance Trump would actually be a “dealmaker” in the Middle East; 1) he was open to talking with Iran, 2) we knew he wanted to seal the Saudi-Israel normalization deal, and 3) he appeared to have the leverage to push Israel to agree to at least a ceasefire in Gaza.

    The window for making those deals seems to be slipping away. Do you agree? If so, is there still time for him to make at least 2 of those deals happen?

12. What effect has been the most noticeable so far from the trade policies that Trump is pursuing? How have those policies affected local national politics, ie. like in Canada and Denmark? And how do these policies conflict with each other when the administration is pursuing agreements? How do they believe we can have goods pass through places like the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal freely but also have tariffs on some of these same goods?

13. Thinking of the administration’s “hotels on the Mediterranean” plan, are regional neighbors stepping forward to help in Gaza? Has the post war conversation changed at all after those comments?

14. What do you think the chances are that he would change laws to enable him to run for a 3rd term, and in turn a dictatorship over America?

    It generally looks like Trump is a Russian asset, what do you think about this train of thought?

15. China+Russia+NK seems to form strong alliance and Trump surely have to address this rising problem. What are the options? Are there possibility that Trump make China and NK to dump Russia and help resolve Ukrainian conflict into EU+UA favor resolving two global problems in one go?

16. How are you and your colleagues in the industry juggling / balancing between trying to stay objective and providing informed context?

17. How likely is it that Trump starts a war of aggression against:

    1. Greenland

    2. Canada

    3. “mainland” EU as a whole, synchronising the attack with r*ssia from the eastern flank

    I know that these seem like extremely far-fetched scenarios. We have the continued aggressive rhethoric (against Greenland and Canada).

    And shit if he is a r*ssian agent, a scenario where the US, China and r*ssia “cut the pie” (US/r*ssia getting Europe, China getting Taiwan and parts fo SEA) doesn’t really seem impossible either.

    EDIT: On a lighter note, do you think that USA will have free mid-term elections and next presidential election?

18. Do you perceive that China is ghosting the US? Like not answering the phone, not wanting to negotiate trade for the moment till more pain hits… or it’s more like they want but is the US that doesn’t want to go to some middle ground?

Comments are closed.