The world awaits promise and peril with Trump’s second act
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Editorial: From foreign policy gambits to strained alliances, Trump’s second term as US president will test global dynamics once again. Four years ago, the inauguration of Joe Biden as US president was greeted, especially in Europe, as heralding a welcome return to normality. By which was meant a re-emphasis on Atlanticism abroad, a respect for the constitution at home, and, above all, a steady, predictable hand on the global tiller. That is not quite how it turned out. From the chaotic end to the US-led intervention in Afghanistan to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the new hostilities in the Middle East, Biden’s four years encompassed as much, if not more, destructive disruption as any recent US president’s term.
That needs to be borne in mind as Mr Trump enters the White House again. Stuff happens. But Mr Trump is different – and not just from his predecessor – in both the scope of his personal ambition and how he believes he can use American power, but also in the extent to which his personality dictates the terms and draws the limelight – for better and worse.
Early proof of the promise his presidency could bring were the joyous scenes that followed the agreement between Israel and Hamas; the celebrations on the streets of Tel Aviv, the festivities even amid the devastation of Gaza, and the rapturous reception, on both sides, for the released captives. The Biden and Trump teams may dispute where the credit lies for this lamentably overdue ceasefire, but Mr Trump’s imminent inauguration and the pressure exerted by his envoy on the hitherto immovable Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu are surely part of the explanation.
