Trump’s America First Strategy; Tariffs, Deals and Power Politics.

By Shabib Ali.

“Donald Trump’s core strategy can be concluded in his slogan “Make America Great Again” shows his leadership style, focusing on America’s interests above anything else. This approach shapes his unpredictable but better planned nature, prioritizing national strength over global values”.

Donald Trump’s nature is defined by a focus on America’s interests, using sudden moves like tariffs to reshape global trade, often causing distress and uncertainty among other states. He also rejects the role of the U.S. as a global leader or police to defend Western values like human rights, democracy, and rule of law, see the world as anarchic where power matters more, like a realpolitik approach. I note that Otto von Bismarck, as described in Henry Kissinger’s Diplomacy book, also showed realpolitik, using effective methods and a strong will for unifying Germany, these kinds of traits Trump shares in his own, self-interested decision-making. Unlike Woodrow Wilson who were spreading democracy and human rights, Trump on the other side acts as a final decider, giving value to advisors who support his choices even if they are disagree with it, and while his first term was persuasive, but his second term shows static nature of his advisors, secretaries, and even the vice president. He builds personal relations, like recent visits to Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries, but prioritizes U.S. interests over allies and personal relations. Trump uses tariffs not as a strategy but as a tool to achieve other goals, like generating revenue or securing deals—for example, in 2025, he imposed tariffs on India to pressure them to reduce purchase of Russian oil. some of his policies are inconsistent based on current situations his advisors come up with different plans—like how to bring peace to Ukraine—and he picks one, showing his style of making deals and acting like a neutral middleman and peacemaker.

“Building on Trump’s “Make America Great Again” vision, Project 2025 turns his focus on national strength into a plan to improve government and boost presidential power. Despite his denied, Trump’s actions, like bringing back Schedule F, fit with this conservative blueprint to reshape America’s bureaucracy”

During trump’s first term, Russell Vought drafted a plan called Schedule F to reclassify federal workers, making it easier to fire those not aligned with the president’s goals, Now, he is head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 2025 and trying to take this plan to push it more. After Trump left office in 2021, Vought started the Center for Renewing. America, which helped create Project 2025, a detailed plan for Trump’s second administration to reorganize the government, change domestic policies, and give the president more control. As Trump said, “I know nothing about Project 2025” but his actions, like signing orders to bring back Schedule F and choosing loyal people, those who is following his ideas. Project 2025 wants to reclassify and remove civil servants who don’t agree with the administration’s priorities. These changes let Trump put people of his own choice in charge, to avoid slow government processes, and act quickly without the delays of bureaucracy. This gives the president too much power, allowing him make decisions without enough checks, which could weaken democracy by ignoring Congress and independent agencies.

Trump’s term 2.0 also focuses on the Middle East, especially the Abraham Accords; a 2020 deal whose aim is to normalized ties between Israel and Arab states like the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco. It aims to build stronger military and intelligence ties mainly with the UAE, while ignoring the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The UAE ignores progress on Palestine, but Saudi Arabia refuses to join due to public opposition, which is made worse by recent anti-Israel feelings. Trump’s position on the Israel-Palestine issue is not clear, he supported either one or two state solutions in 2017-2018 wasn’t clear, and his 2020 two-state plan was rejected. He emphasizes focus on the Abraham Accords and good relations with Israel, where he has more influence than Biden can stop the genocide and create ceasefire. On Iran, Trump’s first-term sanctions weakened the country, but now he prefers military strikes over diplomacy. In June 2025, Operation Midnight Hammer damaged Iran’s nuclear sites (Fordo, Natanz, Isfahan), leaving Israel open to retaliation and an unstable ceasefire which can broke anytime by Israel. On Russia-Ukraine war, Trump wants peace to protect U.S. interests. Ukraine rejected his resource-based mineral deal, showing the Republican “might makes right” mindset. Some in his team support providing arms to Ukraine but worry about the long term consequences because Ukraine is already at lower hand. Trump’s August 2025 meeting with Putin in Alaska ended without an agreement, trump stated “there is no deal until there is a deal” while Putin said to reached on, while a White House meeting with Zelenskyy and EU leaders brought U.S. security promises, though the mineral deal rejection slowed progress

Trump’s sanctions and tariffs hit China and its EU allies, hurting their economies and raising prices in the US. He wants tariffs on almost every country, that can lead to de-globalization. Trump’s tariffs on China aims to weaken their trade power and slow down their rise as an economic global power, this lead to a trade war. Tariffs on EU allies also making NATO alliance weaker and pushing them to spend more on defense to help U.S. interests. Imposing of tariffs in trump second term is exerting pressure on allies, which put NATO at risk, unlike Biden’s friendlier approach which close NATO to US. China is a major focus for Trump. Biden’s China trade hit $400 billion by 2023, but Trump’s plans in the Indo-Pacific are not clear. In August 2025, China hit back with 125% tariffs on U.S. goods in response, while a 15% deal with the EU helped calm trade tensions. Trump is also pushing back against China’s power in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region. His reciprocal tariffs, which match other countries’ rates, upset allies and seem short-sighted. NATO could break apart anytime, but like Nixon and Bismarck, trump policies can lead US to success in certain cases including promotion of domestic industries and reduce US trade deficit, pushing NATO to increase their defense spending can promote burden sharing among members, even some of his struggle in middle east created ceasefire between India and Pakistan in south Asia, weakening Iran in the middle east for US interest and currently working on Ukraine- Russia peace agreement.

The writer is the student of International Relations at National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan.