The election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States, as well as the internal chaos that he largely fomented over the next four years, called into question the nature of the American political system (Gessen 2020), as well as US relations with long-term allies and Russia, and thus the future of East-West relations.
His "America First" program seemed to be motivated by a dedication to "America alone." 26 His overall lack of understanding of foreign politics, as well as his hostility against any international institutions that constrain U.S. policy efforts (Busby 2018), have resulted in unpredictable U.S. conduct on the international arena.
While Trump was eager to start a trade war with long-time friends and openly criticize their leaders, he complimented the leaders of authoritarian countries like China, North Korea, and Russia (Cillizza and Williams 2019).
Despite extensive evidence of direct Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, which has been confirmed by 17 US intelligence agencies (Rosenberg 2017; Bump 2018), Trump has denied the evidence, never said anything negative about Putin, and has virtually justified Russia's occupation and absorption of Crimea (Caryl 2019).
Whether or not the Russians were involved in Trump's victory, they couldn't have been happier with the outcome in many ways.
In his four years as president, he did more to erode Russian confidence in the US to meet past commitments to the existing world order and its major institutions than the Russian leadership could have hoped for (Glickman 2017), including withdrawals from nuclear arms control treaties (including the INF treaty and the treaty limiting nuclear development in Iran), withdrawals from the World Health Organization and the International Postal Union, denigration of NATO, and the withdrawal from the World Trade Organization.
His participation in fomenting the failed assault on the US political system itself adds to the long list of actions that have harmed US-Russia ties.
Even though Trump has been replaced as president by Joe Biden, who has started to reverse these policies, it is hard to determine the nature of the medium- and long-term consequences of Trump's actions on ties with European allies and the Russian Federation.
However, given Trump's challenge to the US commitment to global leadership over the long term, these policies are most likely to have a negative impact on regional and global stability, as well as the vitality, if not the continued existence, of the liberal international system that has existed for the past seven decades.
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References & Further Reading
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