Trump’s America is reshaping an unstable world

Donald Trump is preparing to address the United Nations as the international system faces wars, economic strain, climate disasters and growing anxiety about artificial intelligence. Yet instead of acting as a stabilising force, the United States is increasingly contributing to the uncertainty, according to CNN’s account.

Trump’s speech comes as his domestic approval is weak, ahead of crucial midterm elections, and as his administration remains entangled in a conflict with Iran. Officials say he plans to present the United States as more powerful and respected than it has been in years. He is also expected to claim credit for advancing peace and confronting problems that earlier presidents avoided.

That confidence is not widely shared abroad. Canada and European countries are working more closely to protect themselves from a country that once served as the central guarantor of their security. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has described the change in Washington as a storm that his country cannot control.

A foreign policy built around pressure

Trump’s second-term approach treats American influence as a tool for immediate leverage. Threats, tariffs and the possible use of military force have become closely tied to his personal style and to his pursuit of material advantages for the United States.

CNN points to Trump’s treatment of allies and his warmer relations with authoritarian leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. His administration has also revived an openly imperial view of the Western Hemisphere. After Maduro was toppled in Venezuela, oil from the country is expected to enter US reserves through a 100-year agreement. Trump has also embraced Delcy Rodríguez, a figure associated with the regime and expected to meet him during the week.

The apparent success in Venezuela helped encourage the belief that a similar strategy could defeat Iran’s anti-American government. Instead, the conflict has become another prolonged Middle Eastern war for Washington. Trump had said it would conclude within weeks, but the fighting is approaching its eighth month. Iran’s continued survival has highlighted the limits of US military strength, even after the damage inflicted on the country.

The war has also exposed practical weaknesses. US missile interceptors have been depleted, while an ageing aircraft carrier has become a symbol of the burden placed on American forces. The Iranian experience resembles the lesson Ukraine has delivered to Russia: advanced drones and other modern battlefield technologies can impose severe costs on a larger power.

Alliances weakened by mistrust

A traditional US administration might respond to shared threats by assembling coalitions. Trump’s tariff campaigns and demands for greater national sovereignty have instead damaged the alliances that previously multiplied Washington’s influence. Transatlantic and Pacific partnerships have been further strained by rising oil, petrol and diesel prices linked to the war.

European governments are now taking defence spending more seriously, creating a strategic benefit that Trump can claim. But the route to that result has carried a high political cost. His administration has also encouraged right-wing populist movements that oppose established European leaders, deepening suspicion of Washington.

The same pattern appears in the dispute over Greenland. Trump could have secured a new defence agreement with the territory without threatening to invade it, CNN reports. Greenland is part of Denmark, a NATO member, making the threat especially damaging to confidence in the United States. One Greenlandic politician compared Washington to a powerful sled dog that has turned on its owner: once it bites, trust is difficult to restore.

Trump’s supporters view the breakdown of old arrangements differently. The MAGA movement has long resented allies that maintained generous welfare systems while relying on the American security umbrella. From that perspective, forcing Europe to shoulder more of its defence costs is a success rather than a diplomatic failure.

A rupture with deeper causes

The weakening of US influence did not begin with Trump. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq consumed trillions of dollars, cost thousands of young American lives and demonstrated the limits of air power. They also damaged the sense of effortless American dominance that followed the Cold War.

Other pressures have developed independently. Artificial intelligence is advancing with potentially transformative consequences. Russia’s hostility toward the West has roots in the defeat of the Soviet Union. Climate change predates Trump, although he continues to reject it. Previous administrations also adopted policies that inadvertently strengthened China, including through the dependence of US technology and industry on rare-earth minerals. Beijing exploited that vulnerability during a trade confrontation by restricting exports.

What Trump has changed is the direction and speed of the rupture. He has abandoned much of the bipartisan foreign-policy consensus that shaped the postwar era and replaced it with a more personal, transactional approach. The resulting uncertainty is now becoming a recurring feature of international politics rather than a temporary departure.

CNN cites former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg describing conversations with foreign leaders who once regarded Trump’s first term as an isolated episode but now see a pattern. Their governments, he said, are preparing for a world in which familiar institutions and habits may not return.

Trump did not create every crisis confronting the United States. But his temperament and choices align with an era in which old structures are failing. By treating allies as obstacles and force as a route to gain, he may be accelerating the very decline in American influence that his speeches insist does not exist.