What Trump has done in the first month of the presidency. Parsing
A month has passed since US President Donald Trump took office for the second time. During this time, he managed to initiate negotiations with Russia on Ukraine, announce a review of relations with Europe and start using tariffs for political purposes. In the US, he began radical spending cuts, fulfilled a number of conservative promises and began deporting migrants. What Trump's first month in the White House was memorable for - in Izvestia's breakdown.
He initiated negotiations on Ukraine
- Even before his inauguration, Trump declared the end of the conflict in Ukraine as one of his goals. He promised to achieve this within 24 hours of entering the White House, but later admitted that it was impossible. Nevertheless, he took certain steps to bring the end of the crisis closer and start peace talks. However, even these steps are already being assessed as a 180-degree turn in US foreign policy.
- Although Trump initially threatened to impose tariffs for refusing to make a deal on Ukraine, in fact, under him no more new sanctions against Russia were imposed. Trump eventually abandoned the policy of diplomatic isolation of Russia followed by the previous administration led by Joe Biden. He made his first call to Russian President Vladimir Putin in three years, during which it was agreed to begin talks on Ukraine in the coming days.
- Trump reassigned the meeting with the Russian delegation to his cronies, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Both sides declared the negotiations successful and reached certain agreements. In particular, it was decided to restore the number of embassies in Moscow and Washington and to create negotiating groups to resolve the conflict (we told you more about how the talks went here).
- The meeting in Riyadh was preceded by a prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States: Russia released American Mark Fogel, convicted of drug trafficking, and the United States released detained programmer Alexander Vinnik (we wrote more about his return here). Also, Trump and his administration made several statements regarding Ukraine. From them it follows that the states refuse to restore Ukraine to its 1991 borders, will not send its troops to Ukraine and accept Ukraine into NATO.
Revisited relations with Europe
- Trump, even during his first term, wanted to reconsider US relations with Europe, viewing it as an ungrateful and unprofitable partner. Now the era of paternalism that began after World War II has been replaced by tensions. Much of this has been driven by Europe's own disagreement with Trump's actions on Ukraine. Instead of balancing between the European Union and Russia, the U.S. president has chosen to sever the old ties on which the entire Euro-Atlantic system was built.
- This rupture is clearly visible in the Trump administration's rather harsh statements, which suggest that the US no longer views Europe as a priority for national security and as a culturally close region. Trump has denied Europeans unconditional support, nearly recognizing them as ideological enemies. He sees the Euro-Atlantic burden as unnecessary for the US and of no benefit to it.
- In the future, we should expect further steps from Trump to dismantle European relations. So far, he has not taken concrete action against the EU, limiting himself to threats and intentions to impose tariffs. These threats have included an intention to take control of Greenland, which belongs to Denmark. Trump did not rule out either buying the island or seizing it militarily, but at the end of the first month he never took steps in this direction.
Imposing tariffs
- Trump resumed the practice of imposing tariffs on foreign goods that he used during his first term. He imposed 25 percent duties on imports from Canada and Mexico (reduced to 10 percent on Canadian energy and oil) and 10 percent on goods from China. While the tariffs were imposed on China immediately, Canada and Mexico were given a one-month rep rieve for their agreement to beef up border security with the US. They will begin to take effect on March 4.
- Trump also imposed tariffs against an unlimited number of countries. He imposed 25 percent duties on steel and aluminum imports, allowing them to be lifted only for Australia. Trump has separately ordered the Commerce Department to consider retaliatory tariffs against countries that levy duties on U.S. imports. The measure could result in setting the average duty on all goods at 5 percent.
Embarked on the cuts
- Trump's main objective is to make quick gains against liberal opposition and the federal bureaucracy. To do so, he has embarked on a vigorous firing of government employees, closing entire agencies and rolling back equality, diversity and inclusion programs. He is being aided in this by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Ilon Musk, which has been given special powers to intervene in federal agencies.
- The main "victim" in the spending cuts was the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which actually ceased to exist, although its closure is being challenged in US courts (we told you more about the liquidation of USAID here). Trump also fired inspectors to oversee federal agencies, employees of the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Civil Aeronautics Administration and other government agencies.
- The administration is keeping up the pace of activity on this front, but it is too early to say it has achieved any discernible goals, as even the dismantling of USAID has yet to be finalized. Trump has undertaken the ambitious task of rebuilding the American state and reconstructing American society. It will be extremely difficult for him to complete it within four years, and it is too early to assess in the first month how close Trump is to his ideal. He has not yet embarked on more complex and profound changes in education, the tax system, and relations with the states.
He has begun deporting migrants
- Trump has kicked off the wave of mass deportations of undocumented migrants that he promised on the campaign trail. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was given the ability to raid schools, hospitals and churches, as well as so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to support migrant services. Authorities have announced that they will first target migrants with criminal records. Trump has claimed that he intends to deport 15-20 million migrants, while in total there are about 11 million foreigners with unclear legal status in the country.
- In the first two weeks after Trump's inauguration, 8,800 migrants were arrested and about 5,700 were deported. They were often sent by military aircraft to their home countries, which has caused some resistance from Latin American governments. Trump has also authorized housing migrants at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, known for its strict regime and detention of those accused of terrorism.
- After mass deportations began, migration officials said there was a lack of funds to expand their scale, as it takes an average of $10,500 to arrest and deport one migrant. Economists, on the other hand, said the deportations had a negative impact on agriculture, hospitality, construction and food production. It has been estimated that deporting all 11 million undocumented migrants could reduce US GDP by 8%.
- The US under Trump has also locked its doors to new migrants. The army presence on the southern border with Mexico has been beefed up, asylum applications have been stopped, and the CBP One app for signing up for border control has been shut down. Trump also signed an executive order banning birthright U.S. citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, but it was challenged in court as unconstitutional.
Enacted a conservative agenda
- Trump has also taken a number of actions that have no profound impact on domestic or foreign policy, but which demonstrate that the U.S. is entering a conservative bias. For example, he limited gender diversity to the two sexes and banned gender transitioning individuals from participating in women's sporting events. Trump also re-signed an executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military, which was in effect during his first term.
- On the environmental front, Trump has also pursued policies that run counter to the green agenda. He has expanded natural resource extraction in Alaska, expedited mining permits, pulled out of the Paris climate agreement again, and eliminated tax credits for electric cars.
- A manifestation of Trump's conservative policies was the return of Mount McKinley to its former name and the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the American Gulf. The Associated Press agency, which continued to use the former name of the Gulf, was stripped of its accreditation by the White House.
In preparing the material, Izvestia spoke with and took into account the opinions of:
- political scientist-Americanist Dmitry Drobnitsky;
- American political scientist Konstantin Blokhin.
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