Trump meets with Orbán, Saudis and Cameron as they prepare for his return

Former President Trump is speaking with world leaders as foreign governments prepare for the possibility of a second Trump administration, which would bring with it a major shift in US foreign policy.

Trump met Wednesday at Trump Tower with Polish President Andrzej Duda, following meetings in recent weeks with Hungarian President Viktor Orbán and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. He also reportedly spoke on the phone recently with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Experts say it is not unusual for foreign emissaries to speak to a presidential candidate before an election, but the discussions underscore how world leaders are trying to get a read on Trump and what he might do if he wins in November.

“Everyone is looking for clues about what Trump would do if he got a second term,” said Richard Fontaine, a former State Department official and CEO of the Center for a New American Security.

“The number one question internationally right now is what Trump would do if he came back,” Fontaine said. “Part of that is because they have a baseline of expectations… but the other thing is that even within those four years, to say he was unpredictable would be putting it mildly.”

Trump met in early March with Orbán, the Hungarian autocrat who praised the former president and became an international figure popular among conservatives in the United States. After the meeting, Orbán said he and Trump were aligned on the war in Ukraine and that Trump would not give “a single cent” to Kiev if he is elected.

The former president met earlier this month with Cameron, the UK Foreign Secretary, where the war in Ukraine was also on the agenda. The Biden administration worked closely with British authorities to coordinate a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Trump spoke on Wednesday night with Duda for two and a half hours. The two leaders have a friendly relationship and Trump’s campaign said they discussed the war in Ukraine, the war between Israel and Hamas and NATO spending commitments.

Poland is a NATO member that shares a border with Ukraine. U.S. officials have warned that if Russia overtakes Ukraine, it could try to advance into Poland or another neighboring country, triggering a broader global war.

Duda met with President Biden at the White House in March, and Cameron met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to the US this month.

The New York Times reported in early April that Trump had also spoken with the Saudi crown prince, an influential figure in the Middle East and de facto leader of an important US ally in the region, at a time when tensions are high.

“Leaders around the world know that with President Trump we have had a safer, more peaceful world,” campaign spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement. “He is widely recognized as a leader who, with the support of the American people, kept our nation and our allies safe, our enemies in check, and American workers safe from unfair globalist trade policies.”

“Meetings and phone calls from world leaders reflect recognition of what we already know here at home,” Hughes added. “Joe Biden is weak and when President Trump is sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, the world will be safer and America will be more prosperous.”

Fontaine called it “completely customary” for foreign heads of state to meet with US presidential candidates, adding that Orbán’s meeting was perhaps the only anomaly because the Hungarian leader has openly embraced Trump while foreign officials tend to remain neutral in foreign elections.

It is also common for American officials to meet with representatives from different political parties. For example, White House officials have met in recent weeks with Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, political rivals of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The White House has refused to weigh in on Trump’s meetings with other foreign leaders.

Polls show a tight race for the White House between Trump and Biden, with the former president narrowly leading in most of the swing states that will likely determine the outcome in November, including Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan and Nevada. Biden performed better in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania polls.

Biden campaigned in 2020 in part to restore U.S. leadership on the world stage, after four years of Trump’s “America First” foreign policy doctrine upended traditional alliances. Trump has imposed tariffs on the European Union, castigated NATO allies for not spending enough on defense and spoken warmly of dictators such as North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

A second Trump term could upend US foreign policy at a precarious time in the world.

While Biden has made U.S. support for Ukraine a central pillar of his foreign policy, boasting about the U.S. role in uniting the world against Russia’s invasion, Trump has said that aid to Kiev is not a vital U.S. interest and questioned why Europe is not spending more to finance the war effort.

Biden celebrated the NATO alliance and called its mutual defense provisions “sacred,” criticizing Trump when he recounted how he told an ally he would let Russia do whatever it wanted if it didn’t contribute enough to defense spending.

And Biden has sought to balance U.S. military support for Israel with public and private calls on Israeli leaders to do more to protect civilians in Gaza, while Trump has offered little of substance on how he would handle the Middle East conflict beyond cracking down. Will.

Biden this week endorsed a series of House bills that would provide billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, Israel and allies in the Indo-Pacific such as Taiwan. Trump has not formally weighed in on the legislation.

“I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: We stand with our friends and will not allow Iran or Russia to succeed,” Biden said in a statement.