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President-elect Donald Trump’s Return to Power: A New Era for International Relations
President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power on January 20 is one of the most anticipated of any modern presidency and is likely to be one of the most consequential. America’s friends and adversaries are watching closely and thinking hard about their relationships with the United States.
Trump’s election-winning “America first” vision foresees a strong America in the world that is respected and seeking peace through strength. America’s allies need to hear the message the American people have sent and calibrate their partnerships in order to work with and alongside the U.S. to stand up for the joint interests that unite us.
The astute among America’s allies will be observing the comprehensive nature of Trump’s November election win. On the numbers alone – across the popular vote and spanning different demographic groups – this victory demonstrated a campaign that responded to the central concerns and interests of a vast swath of the American people.
Trump’s great skill as a political campaigner is to tap into sections of an electorate that feel unheard. His victory can be seen to represent the many Americans who work hard, yet for whom life is a struggle; communities that fear prices at the checkout, witness illegal migration accelerating and see opportunities for their children diminishing. Working people who feel their concerns have been either ignored or, worse, stigmatized by traditional politics.
Five decades as a politician and latterly as a businessman have taught me always to hear your electorate and listen to your customer. Alliances between foreign nations need to do the same. Foreign relationships must hear these messages and evolve rapidly to deliver for their citizens.
As I prepare to start my role as custodian of a decades-old “special relationship,” I reflect on my work with multiple U.S. administrations – Republican and Democrat – across the intensive U.S.-U.K. relationship. I see three areas of major potential for expanded partnership between Britain and today’s America: economic growth, national security, and foreign policy realism.
The U.K. and U.S. are each other’s largest single investors, with over $960 billion in mutual investment, and our businesses create over a million jobs in each other’s country, with a strong and balanced trading relationship, worth over $375 billion with the U.S. figures showing a trade surplus with the U.K. We are hungry to trade more and innovate more with America – but we must do so in a way that generates good, well-paid jobs for all our citizens and keeps us ahead in the global race.
Finally, we must operate in the world we find, not the world we would ideally like. Since I was last in government, many of our adversaries have become emboldened. Iran has been seriously set back in recent months but is still a thoroughly malign force in the region. We must not ever allow it to become nuclear armed. The Chinese government I have observed intensively over the past 20 years is more aggressive abroad and controlling at home and in many sectors, now directly challenges Western governments and our values.