The second Donald Trump government into the perspective of International Relations Students

By:Ronald Marquez, Dharma Gonzales and Julian Palomino
 

Donald Trump’s second term in the United States has represented a pivotal moment that is shaping the course of international politics in recent years. This is due to the fact that many of his major decisions since assuming the leadership of the White House have triggered numerous confrontations with prominent political leaders as well as political organizations, who consistently reject the policies implemented from Washington.

We know that this situation can be highly complex to understand; therefore, in this post, we will attempt to explain Donald Trump’s second term from our perspective as International Relations students.

The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States follows the term of the Democratic Party led by Joe Biden, whose disappointing performance in the White House led to public fatigue with Biden's party. Consequently, after a remarkable electoral campaign, the Republican leader Donald Trump managed to return to power, officially taking office on January 20, 2025.

However, from our perspective, what is definitively defining this mandate the most are the policies being implemented by the U.S. government. This is because they are fracturing several of the foundations that establish the peaceful development of international politics, such as the implementation of economic sanctions, withdrawal from international organizations like the WHO, or territorial interventions that lead to the removal of presidents (as seen in the recent interventions in Iran and Venezuela). Nevertheless, we could also analyze these actions through the lens of Realist theory, which specifies that the United States is basing these actions on the pursuit of maintaining its status as the world's leading superpower.

In conclussion from an International Relations perspective, these developments can be clearly understood through the lens of Realist theory. The actions of the second Trump administration—characterized by economic sanctions, strategic withdrawals from international bodies like the WHO, and assertive territorial maneuvers—demonstrate a state acting primarily to maximize its relative power and preserve its status as the world's dominant superpower. For Europe and the rest of the international community, this predictability of "America First" unilateralism has broken the traditional foundations of peaceful, cooperative diplomacy. Ultimately, this era has forced the European Union to abandon its reliance on the historical U.S. security umbrella and accelerate its pursuit of strategic and defensive autonomy, proving that in a state-centric, multipolar world, unity and self-reliance are no longer optional, but essential for survival.