Tornado Alley (PROG)

[hap0206]

Yes indeed -- wonder what another four years would achieve
Trump foreign policy
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[excerpts]
April 7, 2017
Striking Syria
In retaliation for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s use of the chemical weapon sarin in an attack against civilians, Trump authorizes a limited cruise missile strike on the regime-controlled Shayrat Air Base.

May 18, 2017
Revisiting NAFTA
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer notifies Congress [PDF] of the White House’s intent to “modernize” the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The administration seeks to renegotiate the agreement, whose other parties are Canada and Mexico, to address the U.S. trade deficit in goods, eliminate subsidies it sees as unfair, restore manufacturing jobs, and ease intellectual property restrictions.

May 20 – 27, 2017
Trump Goes Abroad
Trump makes his first trip abroad as president, traveling to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, Italy, Vatican City, Belgium, and Italy. He attends a summit in Riyadh with leaders from more than fifty Arab- and Muslim-majority nations, where he delivers a speech calling on the Muslim world to unite against terrorism. In Brussels, Trump addresses North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) heads of state and government, calling on each of them to “finally contribute their fair share” to the alliance.

June 1, 2017
Leaving the Paris Agreement
In a speech, Trump announces that the United States will withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord, another agreement negotiated by Obama. Trump criticizes the 195-country agreement, under which the United States would have voluntarily limited its carbon emissions, for constricting U.S. sovereignty, harming American workers, and disadvantaging the United States economically.

July 5 – 8, 2017
Trump Meets Putin
In a visit to Warsaw, Trump delivers an address in which he emphasizes a civilizational struggle for the West and, for the first time, explicitly references NATO’s mutual defense clause. In Germany, Trump attends the Group of Twenty leaders’ meeting, where he meets for the first time as president with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting is highly anticipated amid ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.

August 8, 2017
A War of Words With North Korea
After Pyongyang threatens to launch ballistic missiles into the waters around Guam, Trump warns that North Korea will be met with “fire and fury” if it continues to threaten launches.

September 19, 2017
A UN Debut
Trump, addressing the UN General Assembly for the first time, threatens to “totally destroy” North Korea if the United States is “forced to defend itself or its allies.” Echoing his inaugural address, Trump emphasizes sovereignty and tells the gathered world leaders that the United States does “not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to watch.”

October 13, 2017
Revisiting the Iran Deal
After months of deliberation, Trump announces that he will not recertify Iran’s compliance with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to Congress (JCPOA), saying that Iran’s behavior violates the spirit of the agreement. Trump does not take steps to abrogate the JCPOA; instead, he asks Congress to deliberate on reimposing sanctions.

November 3 – 14, 2017
Trump Goes to Asia
Trump travels to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines on his longest trip yet. In addition to introducing a new vision for U.S. involvement in the “Indo-Pacific,” North Korea and trade dominate the agenda. In Vietnam, Trump attends the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and delivers an address reinforcing his America First vision on trade. In Manila, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summits, officials from the United States, Japan, Australia, and India convene a quadrilateral meeting of like-minded democracies with concerns about China’s rise.

December 6, 2017
Recognizing Jerusalem
Trump breaks with decades of U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. He justifies the move as a recognition of the reality that Jerusalem is the seat of Israel’s government.

December 2017 – February 2018
Releasing Strategic Documents
The administration releases a series of strategy documents, including ones on national security and defense, both of which highlight China and Russia as major strategic competitors. Soon after, it releases its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which calls for the creation of two new nuclear missiles for submarines. The NPR also broadens the circumstances under which the United States may use nuclear weapons to encompass cyberattacks.

March 1, 2018 – April 3, 2018
Announcing Tariffs
Citing national security concerns, the president announces on March 1 that the United States will impose tariffs on foreign-made steel and aluminum. The administration imposes the restrictions on China but exempts Canada and other U.S.-aligned states, as well as the European Union, as trade negotiations continue.

April 13, 2018
A Second Round of Syria Strikes
Trump orders the U.S. military to strike three facilities in Syria linked to the Bashar al-Assad regime’s chemical weapons program. The air strikes, a response to the Syrian government’s alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians, are carried out in coordination with forces from France and the United Kingdom.

May 2018 – October 2018
Tightening the Border
The president institutes a blanket “zero tolerance” policy in May that results in the U.S. Border Patrol separating more than 2,600 children from their parents, before reversing the policy in August. In response to a spike in Central American asylum seekers, Trump sends five thousand troops to “harden the southern border.”

May 8, 2018
Withdrawal From Iran Nuclear Agreement
The president announces the U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. Trump says it did not sufficiently curb the country’s civilian nuclear program or its regional aggression. Without citing any material Iranian violations, Trump announces that the United States will reinstate two sets of sanctions on Iran that had been waived with the deal’s implementation; they will take effect in August and November and range from aircraft imports to oil and petroleum product exports.

May 14, 2018
U.S. Embassy Moves to Jerusalem
After recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, the Trump administration moves the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The move upsets Arab and Western allies, and brings Washington’s neutrality as a broker in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process into question.

June 12, 2018
Trump Meets Kim
Trump and Kim meet in Singapore. Their joint declaration steers the U.S.-North Korea relationship from confrontation to cooperation, but it establishes few means to enforce its ambitious commitments, which include the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula.

June 19, 2018
Withdrawal From UN Human Rights Council
Ambassador Nikki Haley announces that the United States will withdraw from the Human Rights Council, citing “a chronic bias against Israel” and the human rights abuses of various sitting members, which include China and Venezuela.

[excerpts]
July 16, 2018
Trump-Putin Summit in Helsinki
Trump and Putin meet in Helsinki for a two-hour meeting behind closed doors, accompanied only by two interpreters. Though the leaders claim to discuss the Syrian civil war, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and Russia’s encroachment on Ukraine, the substance of their discussion remains largely unknown. The meeting culminates in a press conference during which Trump casts doubt on U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

September 30, 2018
A New NAFTA
The United States, Canada, and Mexico settle on a number of changes to NAFTA, renaming it the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The trade deal contains new labor stipulations, stronger protections for U.S. intellectual property, and higher standards for the auto industry, including rules of origin and minimum wage hikes that benefit American manufacturers.

October 26, 2019
Baghdadi Killed
Trump announces that the leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been killed by U.S. forces. His immediate successor is also killed in a separate raid. Baghdadi, who once controlled thousands of square miles of territory across the Middle East, was in hiding in northern Syria, eight months after the Islamic State lost the last remnant of its caliphate in Syria.

January 3, 2020
Drone Strike on Soleimani
A U.S. drone strike kills Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, in Baghdad. The Pentagon links Soleimani to violent demonstrations at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, as well as the deaths of hundreds of American and allied troops in the region. Though Trump says he ordered the strike “to stop a war,” Soleimani’s killing raises fears of further escalation. Tehran retaliates by firing missiles at two Iraqi bases hosting U.S. soldiers, prompting Washington to impose new sanctions on Iran.
[Lots more here]
https://www.cfr.org/timeline/trumps-foreign-policy-moments