On December 6th, President Trump announced that the US formally recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and will begin the process of moving its embassy, which is currently based in Tel Aviv. The announcement was identified as a “new approach” for finding Trump’s promised “ultimate deal” for ending the Israeli-Palestinian…
Foreign Policy
Trump Holds Phone Call With Putin
On November 21st, President Trump announced that he had held a phone call with Putin lasting over an hour. The call reportedly focused on the Syrian civil war, the global fight against terrorism, the North Korea threat, and the Iran nuclear deal. Coming only a day after Putin was photographed embracing embattled Syrian President…
Trump Declares North Korea a State Sponsor of Terrorism
On November 20th, Trump returned North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Originally added in 1988 after the bombing of South Korean flight 858 the year before, President Bush chose to remove them in 2008 after a U.S. report recognized their avoidance of state terrorism since the attack two decades earlier. This doesn’t…
Trump Concludes Asia Trip
President Trump returned this Tuesday night from a 12 day trip Asia, his third major international trip after visits to the Middle East and Europe earlier this year. Trump spoke to leaders in Japan, China, South Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines, with a focus on reining in the North Korean threat and forming “free and reciprocal” trade…
Anti-Russian Influence Bill
During the last election and a plethora of time after it, many congressional lawmakers and experts have hypothesized that the Russians had some form of influence during our national election. A group of senators introduced a bill that would mandate online political advisers to provide information about their aids. This information…
US Pulls Out of UNESCO
Last Thursday, the Trump administration officially announced plans to pull out of UNESCO — the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The United States originally left the organization in protest in 1984, citing a pro-Soviet Union bias, only to return in 2002. The most recent departure was announced by the…
Trump Moves Towards Decertifying Iran Deal
The Iran Nuclear Deal, which has been repeatedly maligned by President Trump as an “embarrassment” and “the worst deal ever” may be left in an uncertain position this Sunday, as Trump plans to decertify the agreement. The agreement, formed in 2015 with Iran, China, Russia, France, the UK, and Germany, agreed to remove…
Cuban Diplomats Expelled in Response to Health Incidents
The rebuilding of U.S.-Cuban relations experienced a strange hitch on Tuesday, as the Trump administration expelled 15 Cuban diplomats following an alleged attack on the U.S. embassy in Havana. The nature of the attack remains a mystery, as the only evidence is a shared set of inexplicable symptoms experienced by 21 U.S. diplomats…
President Trump Addresses the UN General Assembly
In his first speech to the U.N. General Assembly, President Trump extolled the importance of state sovereignty and denounced the perceived enemies of global democracy on the world stage. Following the path of isolationism and nationalism that he described in his inauguration speech, Trump promised that the United States…
Trump Imposes Major Tariff on Canadian Plane Manufacturer
With U.S.-Canada relations unusually tense due to NAFTA renegotiations, the Trump administration has potentially taken a further step to weaken the historic bond between the two nations. An integral part of Trump’s campaign promises hinged on reshaping the dynamic of our trade interactions in order to protect American jobs…
United States Denies Chinese Acquisition of American Semiconductor Company
On Wednesday, September 13th, a federal board blocked the 1.3 billion dollar Chinese acquisition of Lattice Semiconductor, an American company based in Oregon. The board cited national security concerns related to the deal, and there has been some evidence of relations between the Chinese…
President Trump Threatens Iran Deal
On September 18th, President Trump announced that the world would know “very soon” about the future of the JCPOA, commonly know as the Iran Deal. This agreement, negotiated by former Secretary of State John Kerry, stalled and prevented the Iranians from achieving nuclear weapons in exchange for removing sanctions…