Donald Trump, following his election, has been pushing his agenda based on his election manifesto of MAGA (Make America Great Again). While every national leader is primarily interested in the well-being of his people, yet carries allies along on occasions ignoring their shortcomings, even if they appear inimical. India continues to support Maldives and Bangladesh, despite their pronounced anti-India sentiments.

Trump, on the other hand, believes that he can bulldoze his way as the US needs none while the world needs it. This flows from his presumption that Washington dominates the world, militarily and economically, and that all states must submit to it. His ego gets a boost when global leaders call and accept conditions he lays down. He began his current term by sending a message that the world is ‘ripping off the US’ and he is the ‘messiah’ to put a stop to it. On internal matters he conveyed that all existing institutions are flawed, exploited by the powerful, and need to be restructured and realigned.

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The message that Trump is sending is that he is in a rush to fulfil his poll promise of MAGA. How it impacts America’s soft power and global standing in the long term is immaterial. Relationships and alliances built over decades are being dumped on the sidewalk, solely because of Trump’s preconceived beliefs. A few of his recent actions highlight this. Accusing his neighbours of encouraging illegal immigrants and drugs to cross into the US, Trump imposed high tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Instead of imposing caution by dialogue, he used a hammer threatening to crush their economy. Justin Trudeau, whom he anyway disliked, was compelled to resign in a few days.

Canada lamely attempted to place counter tariffs, aware that it was just a face saver. Trump brought both nations to heel, solely because their economies were dependent on the US. It was outright bullying. Trudeau commented after a onesided conversation with Trump, “Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plans — reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.” The Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, tweeted in a near surrendering fashion, “Mexico will immediately reinforce the northern border with 10,000 members of the National Guard to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, particularly fentanyl.

The United States is committed to working to prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico. They are pausing tariffs for one month from now.” The submission of both nations massaged Trump’s ego. After success against Mexico and Canada, Trump began switching attention on to the European Union (EU). He mentioned that tariffs ‘will definitely happen with the EU,’ and could come ‘pretty soon.’ The EU had been anticipating it and had even formed a supposed ‘Trump Task Force,’ once Trump’s victory was announced. While Europe for the past couple of years was working to stem a possible Russia threat, it is now compelled to counter Trump’s trade war as also his threat to take over Greenland. Smaller and weaker nations are being bullied unashamedly. Trump threatened to occupy the Panama Canal if the Chinese continue to run it, leading to Panama’s President, José Raúl Mulino, submitting that Panama will withdraw from the Chinese Belt Road Initiative (BRI). This angered the Chinese whose foreign ministry summoned Panama’s Ambassador and also criticized Trump for his actions. Venezuela released six US citizens after a meeting between the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, and Trump’s envoy for special missions Richard Grenell.

Columbia and Ecuador crumbled under US pressure and accepted illegal immigrants, after initially refusing. El Salvador, apart from accepting illegal immigrants, offered to incarcerate deportees from the US of any nationality including their own criminals for a fee. To display his dislike for global institutions, which he believes do not accord priority to US views, despite its funding, Trump pulled the US out of multiple global bodies, and promised to leave even more, throwing UN run institutions into chaos. Displaying arrogance and believing that the US can act at will, Trump, after his meeting with Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned, “The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it.”

He announced his intent of permanently shifting Gazans into neighbouring countries. For Netanyahu, this is music to the ears, while for Arabs it was a sign of American arrogance, which they rejected. How this plays out is to be seen. While most nations capitulated, China stood firm on countering tariffs imposed by Trump. China is not solely dependent on the US for trade. It has options.

Hence, Beijing refused to bend or crawl. It imposed limited tariffs on select imports from the US, effective a week later, opening doors for Trump to negotiate a solution. Beijing is aware that the tariff battle has just commenced, hence has kept a few aces up its sleeve. Standing up to the bully worked. Trump announced he would soon be speaking to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Beijing has stood its ground primarily because it was not in the same boat as Canada and Mexico. Internally, Trump has caused immense upheaval. Shutting down institutions, including USAID, has resulted in thousands of staffers and contractors being laid off or locked out of their offices. A collection of programmes in third world countries have come to a standstill. It is not that US institutions were not being misused; they were and that is well known. However, many of his internal decisions are being challenged in courts, some even being stalled.

India changed its import policies to meet Trump’s insistence on fair trade, accepted its illegal immigrants. The PM will be visiting the White House this week. Just prior to the visit of PM Modi, Trump in an executive order removed all waivers on Iran’s Chabahar port being built by India, impacting India’s trade with Afghanistan and central Asia. How the India-US relationship transcends the bullying Trump is to be seen. One aspect is certain. The world will witness far more bullying and blackmail during Trump’s tenure.

(The writer is a retired Major-General of the Indian Army.)