Despite what Donald Trump likes to say at rallies, the US had no shortage of friends when he re-entered the White House in January 2025.
A cynic might note that America is the geopolitical equivalent of the biggest kid in the playground, and everyone wants to be their friend – not to mention that most countries want to be able to export their products and services to the world’s richest nation.
Despite this, Trump’s White House wanted a change. Insisting that America was being taken for a ride, the President imposed tariffs on many of the US’s closest allies, threatened to invade Greenland, a territory belonging to its Nato ally Denmark, and viciously criticised both Canada and Mexico, the US’s nearest neighbours.
Shorts
Trump was, however, eagerly making new friends – sending out informal envoys to nations in the Middle East and signing business deals with Gulf states, often to the benefit of his family’s companies and those of his associates. In Europe, his White House courted the far right and other populist leaders, even as it got into heated public fights with centrists and the European Union.
