How world leaders rush to get Trump's attention after surprising election win
In early-morning hours Trump got his win confirmed and world leaders started their race to reach him first. Foreign governments try to influence next US presidentʼs thinking before he takes office
Early morning on nov 6th Donald Trump got his victory‚ and world leaders didnt waste time to show their support. Viktor Orban from Hungary jumped first to congratulate him followed by Benjamin Netanyahu and Emmanuel Macron – all of them trying to get ahead in the line
The phone-calls started flowing in like crazy (Trump said he talked to about 70 leaders). Some talks were quick like a 5-minute chat with Shigeru Ishiba from Japan; others went longer with more serious stuff. Volodymyr Zelensky had a 25-minute talk that seemed to calm him down about Ukraineʼs future
Netanyahu whoʼs dealing with his own war problems said he talked to Trump three times by nov 10th; they both see Iran as a big problem. During this weird 11-week time when US has kind-of two presidents at once foreign leaders try hard to get close to the new boss
This isnt new in US history: back in the day Winston Churchill went to see president-elect Dwight Eisenhower in new-york (jan 7 1953). Even Herbert Hoover did a big trip to meet 10 latin-american countries after his win. But Trump does things his own way – he even had Elon Musk join his talk with Zelensky
The current situation is extra-tricky because Joe Biden still runs things but everyone knows his time is running out. When they met this week it was different from 2020 when Trump didnt invite Biden to talk. Now with wars in Ukraine and Middle East going on its hard to keep US foreign policy clear when two different teams are sending different messages to the world
