Donald Trump is still in his early days as American President. But what he has shown in five weeks in office is that the world would not be the same again. Since his inauguration on January 20, he has remained in the headlines for a range of decisions that have not only shaken the US but the world as well.
Since taking charge, Trump has hosted several world leaders from Israel, India, Jordan, France and Britain. It was usual for the world leaders, particularly the US allies, to travel to Washington whenever the new President took charge. This practice becomes even more important given that Trump is known for his unpredictable and unconventional style of governance. He has his own world view, one with which you may not agree.
Since Trump is the President of a superpower, any decision he takes has far reaching implications. That was the reason why world leaders have rushed to the White House to understand what Trump is up to in his second term.
The European leaders are, in particular, worried that policy choices of Trump could change the traditional alliance between the US and the West forever. Their fears stem from the fact that Trump has reached out to Russian President Vladimir Putin much to the dismay of Europe.
Europe views Putin as an aggressor and someone who aspires to expand Russian territory beyond its current border by occupying Europe. They see the Russian invasion in Ukraine as the first step towards achieving that goal. However, Trump dismissed those fears and instead went ahead with first face-to-face talks between the US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia. The agenda was how to end the Ukraine war. Tellingly neither Ukraine nor Europe was on the table.
Against this backdrop, the back to back visits of French President Emanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to the White House were important. At least both the French President and the British Prime Minister managed to come out of talks without any major hiccup with President Trump. They laid the ground for Ukraine President Zelensky's visit to the White House. There were heated exchanges between Trump and Zelensky before the visit. Trump called Zelensky a dictator while Zelensky accused Trump of speaking the language of Putin.
Those developments showed Zelensky's visit to the White House was not going be a smooth affair. However, what happened on Friday afternoon in front of cameras at the Oval Office had no parallels in modern history of international relations. The 50-minute live interaction devolved into a shouting match between Zelensky and Trump.
Vice President JD Vance played his part too in triggering the public spat. The tone was set by Trump himself when he received Zelensky at the White House with an apparent taunt to him: "You dressed up well today." Zelensky never wears formal suits ever since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Much to the surprise of many, an American journalist, considered close to Trump, asked Zelensky why he was not wearing a formal suit, ridiculing him publicly. The subsequent exchanges between Zelensky and Trump made it abundantly clear that the Ukrainian President's trip had gone horribly wrong.
As Trump castigated Zelensky and warned him that "you don't have the cards" to deal with Putin and as Vance dressed down the Ukrainian leader as being "disrespectful" and ungrateful, it was clear that the three-year wartime partnership between Washington and Kyiv was shattered.
Zelensky was asked to leave the White House without further talks, formal lunch and a joint press conference. Trump's supporters were quick to back him for standing up, but European leaders expressed solidarity with Zelensky. It was unimaginable that a leader who was given a standing ovation by Congress and declared a war hero was kicked out of the White House 26 months later. That's how Trump is changing the global order and Washington's friends and foes are watching anxiously!
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