World leaders view Trump as a force to reckon with, despite the turmoil engulfing his presidency
Back home, President Donald Trump is drowning in problems. Read: stubbornly high prices, the Epstein files mess, and a Republican Party that’s suddenly finding its backbone. But step outside US borders—100 miles or even 7,000 miles away—and none of that seems to stick to him.
Out in the world, Trump still looms large.
To many, he’s the man who can make or break a country. And at the Doha Forum this weekend, a glitzy annual meet-up of diplomats, power brokers, and global VIPs, that image was on full display.
Over coffee, desserts, and a lot of whispered side chats, foreign officials kept circling back to the same question: will Trump’s troubles at home push him to take bigger swings abroad? Some think so. Some hope so.
“He doesn’t need Capitol Hill to get things done in foreign policy,” said an Arab official cited by Politico.
Others went further. “Like him or not, he’s a very consequential global actor,” former Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic told Politico. And “consequential” became the word of the weekend—not a moral judgment, just a reminder of the raw power of the US presidency. Even a weakened US president still outranks most leaders in the world.
It’s no surprise, then, that presidents often turn to foreign policy when the political ground gets shaky at home. But Trump is doing it with his usual unpredictability—slashing foreign aid one day, bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities the next, changing his positions on Ukraine and Gaza, talking up peace while threatening war with Venezuela.
His newly unveiled National Security Strategy even stunned the Doha crowd, especially its swipe at Europe for facing “civilisational erasure.” One moderator openly asked the EU’s top diplomat if Trump now sees Europe as an enemy. Publicly, she stayed polite. Privately, European officials were livid.
And yet, plenty of officials—especially from Africa and the Middle East—said they welcomed Trump’s willingness to shake things up. Several African leaders said they wanted him to dive deeper into their continent’s conflicts. They dismissed his past insults about Africa as political noise.
“When he gets the process going, it’s a win,” said an African official cited by Politico.
Trump’s focus on business diplomacy has also earned him fans. Zimbabwe’s finance minister praised Trump’s “creative” approach, saying many countries want a piece of the same economic attention Qatar is getting.
Even Hillary Clinton, one of Trump’s fiercest critics, gave him credit for boldness, though she warned that big moves without follow-through rarely stick.
And that’s the paradox foreign leaders are navigating: they worry about Trump’s unpredictability, yet they know his power is nearly unmatched on the global stage. With three years left in his term, they’re bracing for anything from sweeping immigration changes, abandoning Ukraine, to striking a surprise nuclear deal.
Love him or hate him, Trump still has the ability to reshape the world. And as his domestic problems stack up, many global players are watching to see where—and how—he might try to change the subject.
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