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President Donald Trump arrives with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sign the Abraham Accords, at the White House in Washington, DC, September 15, 2020. | Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump is once again the president-elect of the United States, a development that promises to profoundly affect the world order.
During his first term in office, from 2017 to 2021, Trump’s foreign policy was protectionist and transactional; he cast doubt on the utility of alliances, alienated partners, and attempted complex diplomacy on his own. At times, Trump’s methods strained US relationships, and made the US the target of ridicule.
He was clear throughout his campaign that a second term would feature the same approach, threatening to impose sweeping new tariffs (even on allies), suggesting changes to how the US works with NATO, and promising a rapid end to the war in Ukraine. Ahead of his election, reports suggested some US allies were worried about a Trump win. Now that he is headed back to the White House, world leaders from across the political spectrum have had a range of reactions from firm enthusiasm, to muted optimism, to silence. Here’s what they’ve had to say.
A range of responses in conflict zones
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the first world leaders to offer Trump hearty congratulations for his “historic” return to the presidency. Trump’s win “offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America,” Netanyahu wrote on the social media site X. “This is a huge victory!”
Netanyahu and Trump enjoyed a close relationship during Trump’s first term, and they have much in common; they are both nationalists, and have both faced significant legal obstacles to their leadership. Trump is a convicted felon, and Netanyahu has thus far successfully avoided conviction on corruption charges.
As president, Trump moved the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a symbolic move that tacitly affirmed the contested city as Israel’s, and pushed Arab countries to normalize ties with Israel through the Abraham Accords. Under a second Trump administration, support for Israel and Netanyahu is likely to increase; though he has called for a conclusion to the war in Gaza (which the Biden administration has financially and diplomatically supported) he has also given Netanyahu a green light to “do what you have to do” in Gaza and implied he no longer believes in a two-state solution.
Trump does not have the same warm relationship with Palestinian leaders, who were more measured in their statements. Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas congratulated Trump in a statement, saying, “we are confident that the United States will support, under your leadership, the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.” Hamas leaders were much more circumspect, saying, “Our position on the new US administration depends on its positions and practical behavior towards our Palestinian people, their legitimate rights and their just cause.”
Ukraine also has deep military ties to the US at the moment; the US has been Ukraine’s largest security backer by far as the country continues its nearly three-year-long fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered his congratulations and made clear his hopes for the second Trump term.
“I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer. I am hopeful that we will put it into action together.”
Measured, but optimistic responses from allies
Other allies, particularly in Europe, offered a range of cautiously optimistic responses.
NATO’s new chief Mark Rutte said he would work alongside Trump to “advance peace through strength through NATO.”
Trump’s attitude toward the alliance — as with international affairs more broadly — is highly transactional. In his first term, he regularly disparaged the security alliance, complained that European nations were not contributing enough financially, and pulled nearly a third of US troops out of Germany at the end of his presidency.
“Trump’s criticism all along has been that America’s friends, partners, and allies free ride on its security guarantee and steal jobs from the United States,” James M. Lindsay, a senior fellow in US foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Vox.
European leaders like centrist French President Emmanuel Macron, center-left British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and right-wing Italian President Giorgia Meloni all congratulated Trump and expressed their desire to enhance the trans-Atlantic partnership under a second term, as did European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
However, those desires may be tested by a tariff plan Trump has floated. He’s expressed a willingness to enact tariffs of as much as 20 percent from most trading partners, including friendly nations. Anticipating a Trump victory, European Union leaders have tried to prepare by proposing retaliatory tariffs on US imports. The US is the EU’s largest trading partner, and the bloc’s economy took a hit when Trump imposed tariffs on European steel and aluminum during his first term.
US adversaries stay silent
US adversaries China and Russia have had less to say about Trump’s victory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Trump has praised in the past, has not publicly congratulated Trump, nor has Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov suggested on Wednesday that official congratulations weren’t likely to be forthcoming, saying, “we are talking about an unfriendly country, which is both directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state,” referring to US support for Ukraine. Trump has said that he would bring a stop to Russia’s war in Ukraine within a 24-hour period, without discussing how that would be possible.
Though there are some indications that Russia and Ukraine might come to the negotiating table, Peskov was circumspect about the US’s role in making that happen.
“We have repeatedly said that the US is able to contribute to the end of this conflict,” he said. “Will this happen, and if so, how … we will see after January,” when Trump takes office.
Xi has not publicly congratulated Trump either. Trump slapped China with massive tariffs in 2018, and threatened 60 percent tariffs on Chinese imports during a second term.
“We will continue to approach and handle China-US relations based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a Wednesday press conference. When asked if Xi would call Trump to congratulate him on the win, she said the ministry would “handle related matters in accordance with usual practice” following the official announcement of election results.
