President Donald Trump’s decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, with plans to move the U.S. embassy to the embattled city, upends decades of U.S. policy. Leaders across the Middle East and Europe denounced the declaration, reigniting fury the U.S. leader has stoked with previous foreign policy pronouncements.
The Trump campaign’s “America first” platform outlined ways he planned to restore the U.S. to a preeminent position at the international bargaining table. He promised a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a ban on Muslims wishing to enter the country, disavowal of the Iran nuclear deal, and removal of the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.
Each time Trump has moved to make good on the pledges, the world has responded with outrage.
On his often-promised border wall, for example, the backlash has poured in from all sides. “Costly and ineffective, the wall will not make the United States safer or stop illegal drugs, undocumented workers, or asylum seekers,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a Brookings Institution senior fellow. “Drug traffickers will learn to go under, over, and around the wall. Asylum seekers merely need to cross into the U.S. territory where the wall (and existing fence) is set off away from the actual border. People can always be smuggled by boat.”
Trump has attempted three different bans on Muslims and refugees. The first attempt caused mass confusion at airports, with hundreds of people unfairly detained, and protests worldwide. The bans also sparked widespread condemnation from the world’s politicians, business leaders and celebrities. Iraqi lawmakers proposed a reciprocal ban on Americans.
In June, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, joining war-torn Syria as the only country not participating in the landmark accord. Again, world leaders condemned Trump. French President Emmanuel Macron created a campaign mocking Trump, titled “Make Our Planet Great Again.”
Trump repeatedly lambasted the historic nuclear agreement that President Barack Obama’s administration negotiated with Iran, calling it “the worst deal ever.” Then, in an October speech, Trump disavowed the accord without getting rid of it altogether, angering the Iranians and European leaders.