Trump is traveling around the world making or seeking to make major deals. While it might look like a welcome turn to peaceful diplomacy, at the core is the same goal that’s always driven U.S. foreign policy: control the world in the interests of big corporations.

　　Understanding Trump’s foreign policy

　　There is no consistent doctrine or theory guiding Trump’s approach to foreign policy. Trump is constantly seeking to enrich himself, and boost his personal prestige and stature. But how exactly he does that is of little concern.

　　But within the administration, there are competing factions vying with each other to shape the direction of foreign policy. Broadly speaking, there are those who favor more aggressive and widespread interventions into the affairs of other countries, as traditionally favored by ultra-militarist “hawks”. And then there are those who believe that the power and wealth of the United States would be better preserved by limiting these types of interventions – the “America First” isolationists.

　　Major decisions made today could easily be reversed tomorrow, depending on who has Trump’s ear. But the competing visions for his administration’s foreign policy all agree about the desired outcome – ensuring that the millionaires and billionaires in the United States are the most powerful capitalist class in the world. 

　　Palestine

　　The last remaining U.S.-Israeli dual national being held by the Palestinian resistance – Edan Alexander – was released just before Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia to begin his tour of the Middle East. This was the product of negotiations between the United States and the resistance that did not involve Israel – something that caused significant concern inside the Israeli government. It also comes shortly after the United States and Yemen reached a ceasefire agreement that also excluded Israel.

　　There is now speculation that a similar deal could be imposed by the United States about the political future of Gaza along with aid and reconstruction. Netanyahu wants to keep the war going at all costs for his personal political (and legal) survival. While a ceasefire is of course urgently needed, the terms of a Trump-brokered deal could still be very unfavorable for Gaza and the Palestinian people’s fight for freedom.

　　Arab governments led by pro-U.S. monarchs have long desired to move towards more normalized relations with Israel in order to focus on their common enemy – Iran – or simply to ensure a stable regional environment to grow richer in. But that is political impossible as long as the genocide in Gaza is raging. By bribing Trump with things like private jets or cryptocurrency purchases, these monarchies hope to influence decisions in this direction. 

　　Iran

　　Last weekend, U.S. and Iranian officials held a new round of negotiations. After openly threatening to wage war on the country, Trump has now reversed course and is seeking to make a deal on the future of the country’s nuclear program. There has not been any concrete understandings reached yet, but yesterday Trump claimed that Iran “has sort of agreed to the terms”. And the ceasefire deal between the United States and the government of Yemen led by the Houthi movement – an ally of Iran – adds to the momentum.

　　The United States and Iran made an agreement during the Obama administration to achieve essentially what Trump is seeking now – tight restrictions on Iran’s right to develop nuclear technologies and an invasive regime of inspections by international monitors. The Obama administration thought that a deal like this would allow the U.S. war machine to move on from failed occupations in the Middle East and move on to threaten a bigger target: China. The same basic logic is also accepted by some on the right wing that are influential in the Trump administration. It’s possible that a U.S.-Iran agreement would also involve Iran moving away from its alliance with resistance organizations across the Middle East. 

　　Syria

　　While he was in Saudi Arabia, Trump met with the new ruler of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Mohammad al-Jolani. Al-Sharaa was a top al-Qaeda leader before the rebel faction he commanded formally disaffiliated from the terrorist network – a move that was explicitly meant to be a tactical rebrand and was endorsed by the international leadership of al-Qaeda. Right before meeting with al-Sharaa, Trump announced that he would be lifting the devastating sanctions imposed on Syria by the United States.

　　The sanctions had been imposed by the U.S. government as part of its effort to overthrow the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who al-Sharaa toppled in a lightning offensive last December. The lifting of the sanctions will provide much-needed relief to the people of Syria, who have been subjected to this cruel form of economic warfare for years. But Trump feels comfortable lifting the sanctions because they had served their purpose.

　　Israel has been bombarding constantly since al-Sharaa took power, and launched a ground offensive to occupy more Syrian land. Not only has the new government done nothing to stop Israel, a senior official in al-Sharaa’s government suggested yesterday that the country could even normalize relations with Israel. 

　　Ukraine

　　For the first time since shortly after the war began, direct negotiations took place today between Russian and Ukrainian officials, hosted by Turkey. Ahead of the talks, there was strong speculation that Putin and Zelenskyy themselves would be present at the negotiations, to be joined by Donald Trump. While the Trump-Putin-Zelenskyy meeting didn’t end up happening, there was still agreement reached to swap 2,000 prisoners of war and continue negotiating.

　　Trump’s policy on the Ukraine war is a sharp break with the Biden administration. Trump may personally be motivated by grudges from his first term and the electoral advantage skepticism about Ukraine military aid gave him on the campaign trail. But there is a growing wing of the political elite that argues that stepped up confrontation with Russia is essentially just a distraction from the U.S. empire’s real enemy: China. To Trump and the other managers of the war machine, peace in one part of the world is just a way to step up aggression somewhere else.

　　Editor: Zhong Yao  LiuTingting

　　From:https://liberationnews.org/trump-is-no-peacemaker-new-tactics-same-empire/（2025-5-16）