US President Donald Trump’s high-profile diplomatic push this week—from his UN address to his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping—has highlighted the limits of his ability to translate his confrontational foreign-policy rhetoric into concrete results, Reuters reported Friday.
In an analysis by Reuters’ Matt Spetalnick, Trump has faced growing resistance from allies and other world powers over the Iran war, Russia-Ukraine conflict and other foreign-policy issues, while the conflict has also created a domestic economic challenge by driving up US gasoline prices and contributing to a decline in Trump’s approval ratings.
The nearly seven-month Iran war has disrupted global energy supplies and spread to other parts of the region, including Yemen and the Red Sea shipping corridor. The resulting pressure on oil and gasoline prices has become an increasingly difficult political issue for Trump, particularly as the war remains unpopular and divides his political base ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping produced what Reuters described as a meeting “heavy on pomp and ceremony but light on substance,” with the most tangible outcome being a two-month extension of the US-China trade truce. Beijing’s control over rare-earth minerals also appeared to have tempered Trump’s previously hawkish approach toward China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, addressing US President Donald Trump, Xi said the two countries “stand to gain from cooperation and will both lose in confrontation” and argued that the “Thucydides trap” can be overcome pic.twitter.com/0hitHeDTVT
— The Telegraph (@ttindia) September 25, 2026
His efforts to pressure Russia and Ukraine into a limited energy ceasefire failed to gain significant traction, while an agreement involving Denmark and Greenland fell short of Trump’s earlier demand to “own” the Arctic territory.
“A year ago, few countries dared cross Trump,” Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer wrote. “Now Canada, Europe, China, Iran, Russia and others are all more willing to say no.”
The Iran war remains the most difficult challenge to Trump’s foreign policy, according to Spetalnick, as European and Asian allies have resisted his demands for assistance. At the UN, several US partners also pushed back against his approach, with French President Emmanuel Macron warning against a global “return to the law of the jungle.”
The White House rejected the assessment that Trump’s foreign policy had stalled, saying he was “not concerned with posturing but about results.”
Trump himself appeared to acknowledge uncertainty over the reach of his influence, telling world leaders: “Let’s see if I have any power. Maybe I do and maybe I don’t. We’re going to find out pretty soon.”
Source: Reuters (edited by Al-Manar)