In the two weeks since he was inaugurated as U.S. president Jan. 20, Donald Trump has upended U.S. policy in ways both expected and unexpected. He has threatened to use military force to seize Greenland—the sovereign territory of long-time NATO ally Denmark—threatened to take over the Panama Canal, suggested Canada should become a U.S. state, and only yesterday announced that the U.S. will own and develop the Gaza Strip—after removing the Palestinians who live there. At home his actions have stirred fear among immigrants, even as he pardoned convicted felons who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
Some of these moves, as with the immigration policy changes and the Jan. 6 pardons, are the fulfillment of promises he made during his campaign. Others, like reviving 19th Century imperialism as a strain of U.S. foreign policy, reflect apparently newfound positions that were scarcely mentioned during his run for president.
In Trump, this unpredictability is not surprising in the least. But on some policy questions, he had—until now—been a model of consistency. The Russia-Ukraine war is one. From almost the moment Putin invaded Ukraine three years ago, Trump has said the invasion would not have happened on his watch, and vowed to end it should he again be elected president. Throughout his campaign for a second term, he repeatedly claimed he would end the war on his first day in office, and both Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance regularly decried what they saw as excessive U.S. spending on aid to Ukraine.