"Trump Dismantles US Global Leadership in 100 Days"

For the past eight decades, the United States has led a global order shaped around its interests and values. But in just 100 days, Donald Trump has upended that foundation.

While the U.S. remains the world’s dominant power by many metrics, Trump has pledged to further boost its strength through aggressive domestic industrial policies and heightened military spending. However, unlike his recent predecessors, he envisions a more unilateral, transactional, and expansionist America.

Resurrecting ideas dismissed as relics of the past, Trump has pushed for U.S. expansionism, suggesting ambitions toward the Panama Canal, Greenland, and even Canada, which he has mockingly referred to as the “51st state.” 

In another throwback to protectionist eras, Trump imposed broad tariffs on both allies and adversaries—though market turmoil forced him to pause most measures except against China, seen as America’s main strategic rival. Despite his confrontational stance, Trump has also signaled willingness to cut deals with autocratic leaders, including those in Beijing and Moscow.

Alongside Vice President JD Vance, Trump has distanced the administration from long-standing U.S. security commitments, especially in Europe, portraying allies more as economic competitors than partners.

“Trump is overturning what we’ve come to expect since World War II,” said Melvyn Leffler, a U.S. foreign policy historian. “He reflects a 19th-century Social Darwinist outlook—nations locked in survival of the fittest. He simply doesn’t buy into shared values or mutual dependence, even with allies.”

On the global stage, Trump has shown little interest in soft power, slashing over 80% of overseas aid and eyeing deep cuts to diplomatic missions, particularly in Africa. Yet he casts himself as a “peacemaker”—a role he proclaimed during his inaugural speech.

That claim has produced mixed results. Trump promised to end the Ukraine war on day one of his presidency, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently suggested the U.S. might abandon efforts toward a resolution, citing stalled progress. Meanwhile, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has refused to back a ceasefire, emboldened by a softer U.S. tone—especially after Trump and Vance publicly rebuked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February.

Trump touted a ceasefire in Gaza, brokered just before his inauguration by envoy Steve Witkoff using plans inherited from the Biden administration. Yet the situation quickly deteriorated, with Israel resuming operations and blocking aid, worsening Gaza’s humanitarian crisis. Still, Trump has so far discouraged an Israeli strike on Iran, with Witkoff holding two cordial meetings with Tehran over its nuclear program.

Trump’s second term marks a deeper break from the post-1945 liberal order than his first. After Trump publicly embarrassed Zelensky, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas declared, “the free world needs a new leader.”

The economic ripple effects are clear. Unlike in past crises—when faith in U.S. leadership strengthened the dollar—Trump’s return has driven the dollar down nine percent against a basket of major currencies. This decline is embraced in Trump’s camp, where Vance blames foreign capital inflows for harming American manufacturing.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, a key U.S. ally, remarked that Trump’s new tariffs signaled the end of “rules-based globalisation and free trade,” eroding the American-led world order that had lasted for eight decades.

Wong acknowledged that while the U.S. economy had held up better than others, many Americans in neglected industrial towns felt left behind by globalisation—a sentiment Trump has seized on.

Historian Leffler sees this as a turning point. “I don’t believe the U.S. will return to the liberal, hegemonic global order we’ve known since 1945,” he said. “Trump’s actions point to a fundamentally new direction in world affairs.”