United States

The Alabama election was a setback for Trump, who had prominently supported Moore. Nevertheless, the president saw the implementation of a number of policy initiatives that pleased both his solid base of supporters and Republicans in general. Most notably, some two weeks after Jones’s election, Trump signed into law sweeping tax-cutting legislation that had been at the top of Republican wish lists for years. The new law reduced the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, kept the existing seven tax brackets for individuals but reduced rates almost across the board from 39.6 percent to 37 percent for the highest earners and from 15 percent to 12 percent for those in the second lowest bracket, and eliminated the tax penalty for individuals who had not purchased health insurance.

Withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement, Trump-Trudeau conflict at the G7 summit, and imposing tariffs

Trump fulfilled another campaign promise and dissolved one of the landmark foreign policy achievements of the Obama administration on May 8, 2018, when he announced that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the P5+1 (China, France, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S. plus Germany) nuclear deal with Iran. “It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement,” Trump said, while promising to reimpose “the highest level of economic sanctions” on Iran. The other signatories of the agreement remained committed to it.

Trump’s decision in the matter was reflective of his growing willingness to impose policies that isolated the United States from its traditional allies. He had come into office promising to pull the U.S. out of NAFTA if Canada and Mexico did not renegotiate the agreement; in August 2017, representatives from the three countries began formal discussions on revamping the historic deal. In May 2018 Trump announced his intention to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico, and the EU, claiming that the tariffs were necessary to protect U.S. industries as a matter of national security. At a summit in Quebec in June, Trump was at odds with the other Group of Seven (G7) leaders over a variety of issues but especially trade. Although the U.S. president initially supported the communiqué that the leaders issued at the end of the meetings, Trump took umbrage at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement at a post-summit news conference that, if necessary, Canada would institute counter-tariffs and would not be “pushed around” by the United States. Relations had become strained between the two countries with the “world’s longest undefended border.”

Tariffs on steel and aluminum were also to be imposed on China, but that action proved to be only the opening salvo in a trade war that the Trump administration unleashed on the Asian economic giant. Trump had long argued that China was taking advantage of the United States in trade. Determined to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China and arguing that Chinese infringement of the intellectual property of American businesses and undercutting of American producers was a threat to U.S. national security, Trump, by July, had instituted tariffs on some $34 billion worth of Chinese goods, prompting China to respond in kind.

The Trump-Kim 2018 summit, “zero tolerance,” and separation of immigrant families

Less than a year after exchanging threats of nuclear war with Kim Jong-Un, the mercurial Trump responded in May 2018 to warming relations between North and South Korea by preparing plans for a summit meeting with the North Korean leader. The meeting, which was to be held in June, was cancelled by Trump after a North Korean official characterized threatening statements by Vice President Pence as “ignorant and stupid.” When Kim’s government adopted a conciliatory tone, Trump reversed his decision, and the two men held a historic meeting—the first face-to-face encounter between the sitting leaders of the United States and North Korea—in Singapore on June 12. With the world watching, Trump surprised both South Korea and the Pentagon by promising to end joint U.S.–South Korea military exercises, while Kim pledged to work “toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” a promise that soon appeared to be contradicted by North Korean actions.