By AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address tilted heavily on domestic issues, but he’s also made the case for his foreign policy efforts to Americans who are increasingly uneasy about his priorities.
The president cheered brokering a fragile ceasefire deal in Gaza and his team’s bringing home hostages taken by Hamas, capturing autocratic leader Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and pressing fellow NATO members to increase defense spending among his biggest wins.
At a moment when polls show the American public increasingly concerned about the economy, Trump’s assignment Tuesday evening also was to cut through thickening skepticism that he’s staying true to his “America First” philosophy after a year in which his focus was often far from home. It’s a wariness shared by some who once counted themselves among Trump’s closest allies.
But Trump made the case that he’s taking the right approach balancing domestic policy concerns while using America’s military might when needed.
“As president, I will make peace wherever I can — but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must,” Trump said.
Sixty-one percent of U.S. adults said they disapprove of how Trump is handling foreign policy, while 56% say Trump has “gone too far” in using the U.S. military to intervene in other countries, according to surveys from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted earlier this month and in January.
Here are a few moments where Trump sought to show his foreign policy approach is working:
Will he take action against Iran?
The growing unease comes as Trump weighs whether to carry out new military action on Iran. He last week warned Iran that “bad things will happen” soon if a deal is not reached over its nuclear program.
Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are scheduled to meet again Thursday in Geneva with Iranian officials as U.S. warships and fighter jets mass in the Mideast.
Trump explained to Americans why he’s pondering military action, just eight months after he claimed that U.S. strikes had “obliterated” three critical Iranian nuclear facilities and left “the bully of the Middle East” with no choice but to make peace.
“We wiped it out and they want to start all over again. And they’re at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions,” Trump said. “We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words: We will never have a nuclear weapon.”
But the pathway to a deal seems murky as the authoritarian clerics who rule Iran say they will only discuss the nuclear issue. The U.S. and Israel also want to address Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for regional armed proxies, including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.
Trump struggles to end the war in Ukraine
Tuesday also marks the four-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On the campaign trail, Trump boasted that he would be able to end Russia’s war on Ukraine in one day, but he has struggled to fulfill his pledge.
Russian and Ukrainian officials are negotiating in U.S.-mediated talks but are at loggerheads over key issues, including Russian demands that Kyiv concede Ukrainian territory still in its control and who will get the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe.
Russian troops have moved only about 30 miles into eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region in the past two years.
Despite the slow pace, Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains his maximalist demands, saying Kyiv must pull its forces from four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed but never fully captured.
Trump argues it’s inevitable that Russia will win control of the Ukrainian territory and has pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal to save lives.
Trump appears eager for a peace deal before the U.S. midterm elections despite the challenges. Zelenskyy says the White House has set a June deadline for the war’s end and will likely pressure both sides to meet it.
Ukraine, Russia and the rest of Europe will be listening closely to hear what Trump has to say about ending the war.
Another victory lap on Maduro and focus on Western Hemisphere
Trump again celebrated last month’s capture of the Venezuelan leader in an audacious military operation, saying the U.S. “just received from our new friend and partner, Venezuela, more than 80 million barrels of oil.” The Trump administration had previously said it was orchestrating the effort to sell a total of about 30 to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil that had been stranded by a partial blockade imposed by the administration.
Maduro and his wife were whisked to New York where they are being held to face trial on federal drug conspiracy charges.
Trump paid tribute to a helicopter pilot who was wounded in the operation but still managed to carry out the mission and paused to award him the Congressional Medal of Honor. He also introduced a Venezuelan political prisoner freed by the Venezuelan government following the U.S. operation.
“This was an absolutely colossal victory for the security of the United States,” Trump boasted.
In the aftermath, Trump has called on U.S. oil executives to rush back into Venezuela as the White House tries to quickly secure $100 billion in investments to fix the country’s neglected infrastructure and fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum.
Trump’s action against Maduro, coupled with an increasingly aggressive posture in the Western Hemisphere aimed at eliminating drug trafficking and illegal migration, are a concern for many in the region — although they also have won support from some smaller countries.
Trump has likened the strategy to the Monroe Doctrine, with its rejection of outside influences and assertion of U.S. primacy throughout what the administration considers to be “America’s backyard.”
U.S. forces, under Trump’s orders, have carried out dozens of military strikes on alleged drug-running vessels in the Caribbean, seized sanctioned oil tankers and tightened the embargo of Cuba as part of what the president is referring to as the “Donroe Doctrine.”
“We’re also restoring American security and dominance in the Western Hemisphere, acting to secure our national interests and defend our country from violence, drugs, terrorism and foreign interference,” Trump said.
Tariff strategy following Supreme Court ruling
The president ahead of the address ridiculed the six justices, including two conservatives he appointed in his first term, who last week struck down his use of a 1977 legal authority he had cited for most of the tariff hikes he imposed over the past year on friends and foes alike.
In his speech, he took a more measured tone, calling the decision “an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court.”
Trump on Monday threatened countries around the world to abide by any tariff deals they have already agreed to.
Any country that wants to “play games” with the Supreme Court decision, Trump posted on social media, will be met with “a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to.”
Over the weekend, Trump announced he would increase to 15% a new global tariff aimed at replacing many of the import taxes ruled illegal by the Supreme Court last week.
He’s already signed an executive order enabling him to bypass Congress and impose a 10% tax on imports from around the world, starting Tuesday. Those tariffs are limited to 150 days unless they are extended legislatively.
“The good news is almost all countries and corporations want to keep the deal that they already made,” Trump said. He added, “The legal power that I as president have to make a new deal could be far worse for them and therefore they will continue to work along the same successful path we had negotiated before the Supreme Court’s unfortunate involvement.”
Associated Press writers Colin Binkley, Jonathan J. Cooper and Matthew Lee contributed reporting
