Crunch time for Trump’s ‘America First’ as deadlines loom

Bloomberg

Donald Trump ended 2018 dramatically by ordering US troops out of Syria and accelerating his defense secretary’s resignation by two months. The first quarter of 2019 looks to be just as tumultuous.
From China to Iran, Trump has set a host of deadlines for action that will help reveal if the president is really the global deal-maker he professes to be or a leader who’s leaving the US diminished on the world stage as he boasts of his “America First” foreign policy.
“The next several months are pivotal,” Stewart Patrick, director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in an interview. “There’s a really crowded international calendar populated by things that have risen to the top of the agenda because of the administration’s policies in forcing confrontation.”
Beyond the changeover at the Pentagon, Trump is going without a United Nations ambassador — Nikki Haley’s tenure ended last month and the president has yet to formally nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, his choice to replace her. And Trump will confront a House of Representatives controlled by Democrats, who promise closer scrutiny of the administration’s foreign policy.
Trump could always push his deadlines later into the year — he’s famous for saying a decision will be made in “two weeks,” and then not following through. For now here are some of the most important foreign-policy deadlines the president and his team have set for the first few months of the year.

China
The biggest test of Trump’s approach to world affairs will be China and a trade dispute that reaches a crisis point in March. That’s when the president has threatened to raise tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent unless Beijing agrees to a trade accord on terms favourable to the US.
While Trump tweeted that he had a “very good call” with President Xi Jinping and “big progress is being made,” the tariff threat encapsulates
the administration’s aggressive stance towards China and Trump’s willingness to take on other countries no matter the potential economic fallout.

Russia and the INF
Trump’s vows to seek better ties with Moscow have been sidelined by Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian ships near Crimea, its poisoning of a former spy in the UK and the growing evidence of its interference in the 2016 election. In early December, Pompeo said Russia has 60 days to come back into compliance with a 1987 treaty on nuclear weapons, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or the US would pull out.
A withdrawal could lead to heightened military tensions in Europe, but Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that no talks with the US are taking place. The end of the Cold War accord seems near.

Venezuela
The Trump administration is also mulling new actions against Venezuela by January 10, the day President Nicolas Maduro’s current term expires. The US says that May elections that gave Maduro another term were a sham and the administration needs to send a signal to show its disapproval.
US officials believe they have a clear legal case to do this because of Venezuela’s support for rebel groups in Colombia.