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You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. Donald Trump has passed 100 days in his second term as President of the United States. In today's episode, we're going to look at how President Trump is using this term to reshape the U.S. relationship with the rest of the world. During every single day of the Trump administration,
I will very simply put America first. NPR's Michelle Martin, along with four NPR correspondents around the globe, take a look at the worldwide effects of President Trump's policy moves in his first hundred days. Here's Michelle.
His administration is at the center of negotiations in two major conflicts, which he promised to end. I say that November 5th will be the most important day in the history of our country. I think it will also be the most important day in the history of Israel. The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. He has a different idea. I think it's something that could change history.
Shortly after I win the presidency, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled. I'll get it settled very fast. Your country is in big trouble. Wait a minute. No, no. You've done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble. I know. You're not winning. You're not winning this. Also, how President Trump is trying to reorder global trade. I always say tariffs is the most beautiful word to me in the dictionary. No.
No country should fantasize that it can suppress China and maintain a good relationship with China at the same time. We didn't ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves. And there have been plenty of other talking points from Trump's foreign policy. And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland.
USAID, run by radical lunatics, and we're getting them out. I think Canada is going to be a very serious contender to be our 51st state. We have been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer.
President Trump describes his foreign policy as America first. It has had major ripples around the world. And a group of NPR correspondents is here to tell us about how this is playing out from where they sit. I'm joined here in our Washington, D.C. studios by Greg Myrie, NPR national security correspondent.
In the field, we're joined by NPR international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam, NPR China correspondent John Ruich in Beijing, and NPR's Eder Peralta in Mexico City. Eder, to you first. One of the first things Trump did on day one was to declare a national emergency on the southern border. You were there on the first day.
Yeah, I mean, and I think it gave us a preview of both the drama and the chaos that we would see later on. I mean, I was at the foot of the bridge that leads into El Paso from Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, and migrants who had been given appointments to ask for asylum in the United States, they were lined up at the bridge, and just minutes after Trump arrived,
takes the oath of office, their phones start lighting up. It was a message that said their appointments had been canceled. Some of them had been waiting a year for this appointment. Marjely Stinoco had been waiting for six months and when her message came, she just fell to her knees.
And Michelle, what she keeps asking is, why me? Why me? And from that point forward, the U.S. border with Mexico was essentially shut down, and the Trump administration almost completely upended the country's immigration policies with some harsh policies, including flying migrants to a so-called terrorism detention center in El Salvador. And that has put the
president at odds with the federal courts, which have expressed concerns that the Trump administration is acting outside of the law. Okay, so let's talk about El Salvador. Pre-Trump, the U.S. used to express concern about what happened in those prisons, correct? Yeah, I mean, this is a stunning reversal for the United States. The president of El Salvador, Nayib Ukele,
famously called himself the world's coolest dictator. His government declared a state of exception, which suspended many fundamental civil rights. He was re-elected despite a fairly clear ban on re-election in the country. And over the past three years, he has jailed some 80,000 Salvadorans. The U.S.,
Before Trump used to complain about the violation of human rights in the country, they used to complain about the democratic backsliding in El Salvador. And now with Trump in office, they are tacitly endorsing his strongman tactics. And I think it's actually more than that, because...
The Trump administration is actually paying El Salvador to take migrants, the US says are gang members. And the US is using similar tactics. I mean, we learned, for example, that some of the migrants were determined to be gang members just because of a tattoo. We heard Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary at DHS, and she's describing an effort to use wartime powers in order to move fast to fix a country that is living in fear of gang violence. And that's what Bukele did.
Those are the arguments he made. And pre-Trump, Bukele was seen as a kind of outlier who was using extreme tactics to pacify his country. But now the Bukele doctrine seems to be winning on this continent. Jackie Northam, to you, you've been covering Canada, one of the U.S.'s closest allies. Trump has made some far-reaching statements and policy moves, to say the least. What's been the impact there?
Oh, Michelle, it's been remarkable to see how Canada has responded to Trump's threats and taunts. You know, you've watched Canadians who are broadly seen as, you know, nice and polite and say sorry a lot. And they've just turned into completely different people. They're booing during the playing of the U.S. National Anthem. They're refusing to buy all American products or visit the U.S. And they've
You know, they've adopted this elbows-up attitude, a hockey slaying for a fight back. And all this started when Trump threatened to turn Canada into the 51st state, you know, taking all its resources, water and minerals and oil and gas...
And then there was this, you know, these stiff tariffs he imposed on most Canadian goods. Now, Trump's rolled that back a bit. He's done some carve-outs and some exemptions. But really, you know, Michelle, that's done little to soften people's anger and sense of betrayal. You know, many Canadians saw the tariffs as unjustified and that they'll likely drive Canada, you know, into a recession.
I've done a couple of reporting trips to cover these things. And a couple of weeks ago, I was in the maritime province of Nova Scotia, and I went to a small town called Clarks Harbor. It's about 800 people to talk to some lobster fishermen. And there's a threat that lobsters will be tariffed. And one of the fishermen, Russell Atwood, you know, he articulated the common fear. He said Trump is erratic, and that's bad for business. Have a listen.
You always got this in the back of your mind, what day does he get up and has a bad day and says, I'm putting 25% tariff on it. So yes, it's a big worry to this part of the fishery.
And, Michelle, the lobster industry, like many other industries in Canada, are responding to the tariffs. They're starting to look for other markets for their products, you know, in Europe and in Asia and elsewhere. And then, of course, there was this week's dramatic federal election where we saw a real reversal of fortunes for the political parties there. I mean, it seemed for months that the Conservative Party seemed to be in the ascendancy. It actually seemed like they would win in a landslide. What happened? Well,
Well, you know, Trump played an oversized role in the election. He really helped define the tone and the strategy and ultimately the outcome for more than a year. The Conservatives under leader Pierre Palliev were 20 plus points ahead and the Liberals were really down in the doldrums. And Palliev's rhetoric was similar to Trump's, you know, slash the size of government, end wokeism, that kind of thing.
But then Trump came onto the scene, and the anger against him in Canada is so great that voters started rejecting Polyev. His poll numbers tanked, and the Liberal Party shot ahead until they were in the lead. Now, Mark Carney, the Liberal Party candidate and now the prime minister, cast himself as an anti-Trump candidate. And he's seen as somebody who's been able to take on the president and stand up for Canada. And you can clearly hear that in his election victory speech yesterday. President Trump...
is trying to break us so that America can own us. That will never, that will never, ever happen. You know, Michelle Carney's got a long career in finance and economy, and that could help when he's dealing with Trump. And Trump said today that Carney will visit him at the White House within the next week. And no question, tariffs will be high on the agenda. Thanks, Jackie. Now let's go to NPR's John Rewich. I actually misspoke. He's in Shanghai and not
in Beijing. John, tariffs are obviously a huge part of Trump's foreign policy. China is at the center of it all, facing U.S. tariffs of 145% or more. U.S. products going to China are being hit by tariffs of 125%. This is extraordinary stuff. It's just unprecedented. So how has Beijing been handling it? Yeah. Hi, Michelle. Let me play you just a short clip from a propaganda video that the government here put out just this week in Chinese and English. Here you go.
History has proven compromise won't earn you mercy. Kneeling only invites more bullying. China won't kneel down. Because we know...
Kneeling invites bullying. So that gives you a sense of the sort of defiance that we've seen out of Beijing from the start of this. There are very few signs out of Beijing that they're going to bend at all. They're quite confident in their case. Case in point has been this discussion over the past couple of weeks, you know, out of the Trump administration from Trump himself saying that the two sides are talking. And China's been unequivocal. Foreign ministry spokespeople, Ministry of Commerce spokesperson, they've all said there are no negotiations going on. Basically, we're not seeing enough respect from the U.S. yet.
The government here has projected a lot of confidence, a lot of conviction, but they're focusing on what they can control. So I went back and I looked at what Xi Jinping, the leader of China, has been doing since President Trump took office. Some of it relates to foreign policy, which we can get into in a little bit, but a lot of it's domestic focused, focused on the economy. He had a really prominent meeting with tech executives, including
including Jack Ma of Alibaba, who's sort of been in the wilderness for criticizing government policy. He's back. The founder of DeepSeek, that Chinese AI company that surprised the world with a really competitive model that was created with less resources.
The founder of DeepSeek was there. So this sent a huge signal to the business world. AI, recurring theme for Xi Jinping. He's been stepping up support. He called for more AI self-sufficiency. He's been in Shanghai actually these past couple days, visited an AI incubator where he met young entrepreneurs.
He chaired a Politburo meeting in April on the economy and on and on and on. So in short, there's no sense of panic here. They are taking the tariffs in stride, knowing, I think, that ultimately it's a game of chicken. So let me go back to Ada Peralta here, because Mexico seems to be handling this very differently. The president there has been seen as kind of a Trump whisperer, if I can
Put it that way. How has she handled him? Completely different. Definitely not the kneeling invites bullying. You know, she's tried to avoid confrontation. So she's tried to give him public wins. She put 10,000 troops on the border. She increased fentanyl seizures. She's never said a bad word about police.
President Trump. And actually, Trump has been soothed. He's never said a bad word about her. He's walked away from some tariffs, some of the rhetoric about any potential military action here in Mexico has softened. But that's not to say that Mexico isn't facing some tough consequences. Right now, the
on the verge of a recession. And a lot of this has to do with the bluster of President Trump. Mexico is super vulnerable to tariffs from the U.S. 80% of its exports go to the U.S. So Trump's words and even the lower tariffs that have gone into effect have already taken a toll. So I guess the question is whether this softer tack with Trump has made much of a difference here. So, John, can I ask about, for want of a better word, regular people in China? Do you have a sense of
What they are saying about Trump or about U.S. policy.
Yeah, a couple of points there. One is oftentimes as an American in China, you get asked where you're from, say the United States, and the conversation sort of ends there. People will talk about American movies or whatever. Politics is coming up a lot in those conversations. People are immediately asking about Trump and what he's doing. So that sort of government confidence, I actually feel is trickling down. Also in trade, I visited a trade fair a couple of weeks ago, and a lot of people are indeed expressing concerns. Orders to the US are drying up.
In fact, there was data out yesterday showing that manufacturing activity in China was down in April. New export orders were at their worst level since the pandemic in 2022.
But these manufacturers and exporters were confident about a couple of things when I talked to them. One is that Americans are going to pick up the tab for tariffs. They just don't have the margins to do it here. And the second is that they're going to be workarounds and people and companies are already creating them. So that might be going, you know, sending products through third countries where there aren't tariffs that are 145 percent, expanding into other markets like Europe, like Latin America, or tapping into the domestic market here. There's 1.4 billion people in China, so it's pretty big. And
Another thing to remember when sort of trying to think about the context of all this is that exports to the U.S. are important for China. The relationship's key. But they add up to less than 3 percent of China's GDP. Wow. So, John, before we let you go, is there a sense that Trump and his tariffs and what many people see as these fairly chaotic policies in general are an opportunity for Beijing to increase its global footprint or influence either through these economic ties like you've been talking about or something else? Yeah.
Yeah, I think there might be. I don't think the government's being super explicit about it. But, you know, we talked about I talked about Xi Jinping's activities since Trump took office. He's on the foreign policy front now.
He has, you know, moved in this direction. You know, he chaired a leadership meeting about boosting relations with neighbors. He then went to visit Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia, where they signed more than 100 deals. He hosted other leaders from neighboring countries, Southeast Asia and Central Asia at an Asian Winter Games in China in February. I spoke to Wang Wen about this. He's a professor at Renmin University here in China.
We don't seem to care about the United States. We think the United States should be...
And beyond the neighbors, China dropped sanctions just recently on several EU parliamentarians that had been an issue that was holding up an investment deal with Europe. Robust outreach to Africa and Latin America continues. And by the way, he talked with Vladimir Putin of Russia twice since Trump was inaugurated. The first one was actually on Inauguration Day. And according to the Kremlin, Xi Jinping is headed to Moscow next week for World War II Victory Day parade.
Thanks. And this is a good opportunity to bring Greg Myrie in here because, Greg, we've mentioned some of the ways that Trump is scaling back the U.S. role in the world. Ukraine seems to be a prime example. How does it seem to be playing out so far? Well, the Russia-Ukraine war really touches on some key hot-button issues for Trump.
And earlier you played that clip of Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arguing in the White House back in February. And that really crystallized a good deal of Trump's thinking about the world. He wants the U.S. out of open-ended wars. And the U.S. doesn't have troops in Ukraine, but it spent a lot of money there. It's led the international effort to support Ukraine.
Trump wants a permanent ceasefire there, but it's proving elusive. Both sides are still shooting, and Russia in particular is launching major attacks. Now, Trump also sees many foreign issues, including Ukraine, as an economic question. And remember, Zelensky was at the White House in February to sign a deal with Trump on Ukraine's natural resources, with the U.S. getting a significant cut. Well, Michelle, we have some news.
The two countries have announced that they've signed this deal. It's a bit thin on details. We don't expect a whole lot of movement while the fighting is still going on, but it may serve to help preserve the U.S.-Ukraine relationship. Okay, but let's zoom out a bit more. Trump says he wants the U.S. to have fewer commitments globally.
But yet there seems to be a contradiction there because he's also talking about taking over territory in other countries. You heard Jackie Northam talk earlier about these comments, which are so inflammatory in Canada, about making Canada the 51st state and, of course, Greenland. So how do we make sense of this? Yeah, I spoke about this with Kelly Grieco. She studies U.S. foreign policy at the Stimson Center in Washington.
In the first term, I would say the defining characteristic of his foreign policy was chaos. We see still a lot of chaos. The difference, I would say, this time is that he's really taking a sledgehammer approach to U.S. foreign policy and the institutions around it.
So Trump would seem to be making a distinction, as best we can tell at this point, between places where the U.S. is part of an alliance or an institution and places where he wants the U.S. to be unrestrained and to act unilaterally. So with NATO, for example, the U.S. has troops in a number of European countries at considerable expense. And Trump just doesn't think the U.S. gets anything out of these arrangements.
But in some of the examples we've mentioned where he says the U.S. should take control of Greenland, which happens to be part of NATO through Denmark or Canada, making it a U.S. state. Well, it's also part of NATO. So Trump does seem to favor greater U.S. involvement abroad if the U.S. can act on its own unilaterally and there seems to be some sort of economic benefit involved. So, Greg, let's just spend the last few minutes talking about the Middle East.
Trump says he wants an end to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and a reduced U.S. role in the region. Yet the U.S. started bombing Yemen last month.
Once again, aren't these goals at cross purposes? Well, yes, it does seem that way. Now, Trump would probably argue that the U.S. is going to deal the Houthis in Yemen a quick, sharp, powerful blow. This will end their attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea. But the U.S. has been bombing the Houthis since March 15, and there's no sign the Houthis are backing down. In fact, they've shot down at least a half dozen U.S. drones at $30 million apiece.
This week, a U.S. fighter jet fell off an aircraft carrier and into the Red Sea. That plane cost more than $60 million. So Trump came into office on January 20th, just a day after the Gaza ceasefire took effect.
His envoy helped negotiate it, and Trump claimed a lot of the credit. But that Israel-Hamas truce has collapsed, and the Trump administration is now allowing Israel to act largely as it wishes. So Trump was hoping for quick results in the Middle East and wanted to move on, but that's not happening. And he's already facing the prospect of more protracted conflicts than he expected. And like presidents before him, he wanted to be less involved in the Middle East, but
But he's being drawn back in, it seems. And we have about a minute left, Greg. So you've been covering these issues for a long time. When you talk to the sources that you've maintained over the years who've worked in the national security space, like what's the overall sort of mood of the conversation, the tenor of the conversations that you have with them?
Well, they're really trying to figure out what Trump is getting at more broadly because his goals seem to shift by the day. He's talking about scaling back, and yet there is this greater involvement in certain places. There's a talk about the tariff war with China. It's hard to figure out the military and security strategy. So there just hasn't come together as a real force. And some of the people like Pete Kagan,
Pete Hegseth at the Defense Department, Marco Rubio, have been involved with other issues, aren't really stating what their priorities are. That was NPR's Greg Myrie, John Ruich, Jackie Northam, and Ada Peralta. Thanks to all of you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Michelle. You're welcome. Thanks, Michelle. Thank you, Michelle. And that was NPR's Michelle Martin. That's the state of the world from NPR. Thanks for listening.
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