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Commentary
Wall Street Journal

Trump’s Foreign Policy Is Surprisingly Good for the World

His critics make many good points, yet there are hopeful signs from Iran to Japan.

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
Walter Russell Mead
President Donald Trump listens during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House on December 15, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
Caption
President Donald Trump listens during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House on December 15, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

Wars in the Middle East, war in Ukraine, terror attacks from Washington to Sydney—2025 has been a rough year. With the Trump administration breaking every rule in the diplomatic playbook and generally upending long-established pillars of American foreign policy, it’s been both a confusing and an exhausting 12 months.

The question as we approach the end of the first year of Donald Trump’s second term is whether the president’s revolutionary foreign policy is making the U.S. and the world better off.

Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal.