Early morning of nov 6th marked a big shift in US politics when Donald Trump won presidential election. Viktor Orban quickly posted on X about trumps huge victory‚ starting a wave of congrats from world-heads
Foreign leaders didnt waste time: Benjamin Netanyahu and Emmanuel Macron jumped in with their messages. Shigeru Ishiba had a quick 5-min chat while others wanted longer talks to discuss their needs. Volodymyr Zelensky got a 25-min talk that kinda-helped his worries about war support
The list of people wanting trumps attention keeps growing:
- World leaders trying to get early meetings
- Countries pushing their interests forward
- Old contacts from previous term reaching out
- New allies looking for connections
Between election day and jan 20th (when new president takes office) theres a weird time when two people share power in US foreign-policy. Its an old-school 11-week gap that doesnt fit todays fast-paced world; but its what we got
Iʼve talked to probably 70 world leaders
Netanyahu claims he already had three talks with trump about Iran stuff. Some meetings happen in-person - like when Javier Milei visited mar-a-lago (he brought cool gifts just like Japanese did back in 2016)
Current setup is extra-tricky cause Joe Biden still runs things while trump makes his own moves. With wars in Ukraine and middle-east going on its hard to keep US foreign policy clear. Trump doesnt use state dept help for calls - he even had Elon Musk join zelensky chat which is not how things usually work
History shows these handoffs can be messy: back in 1932 when Franklin Roosevelt wouldnt work with Herbert Hoover on europe money problems it caused big trouble. Now in 2024 with biden and trump not being friends its looking like another bumpy ride ahead