January 20th marks the first anniversary of Trump's return to the White House. What has Trump done in the past year? There is no doubt that this unconventional president has become even more radical than during his first term, launching a series of shocking actions; imposing tariffs, arresting the president, and obsessively eyeing allied territories. In short, he is a standard "global hotspot generator," making the world very busy over the past year.
Trump made the world busily occupied for one year
In the first month of 2025, the world suddenly fell into an unprecedented peculiar dilemma. Diplomats from Latin America were staring at Venezuela, strategists in Europe were studying maps of Greenland, and Middle East experts were anxiously analyzing the situation in Iran. These three seemingly unrelated issues all have a common point: they are highly related to Trump. If we go back further, since April last year, global attention has been fixed on the Oval Office in the White House. Many countries even sent people with various gifts to Washington to please Trump, their goal being only one: to reach a tariff agreement with Trump.
These cases make one think of Napoleon's classic moments in history, when he stirred up the entire Europe and kept it awake all night. At that time, European countries would wake up every day facing a problem: what was Napoleon going to do today, who was he going to "attack", which European country was he going to conquer, or would he attack them? For the past year, every morning, the world also faced the same question: what will Trump do today? People had to watch Trump's "Truth Social" platform.
Last April, Trump single-handedly challenged the world, launching a tariff war against dozens of American global trade partners, causing tremors in global financial markets. From Trump's perspective, his core goal was to use tariffs as a lever to create leverage and extort trade partners. Except for China resisting Trump's extortion and launching countermeasures against the US, most other countries basically fell into Trump's trap, rushing to negotiate with him and eventually being heavily extorted. For example, Japan was extorted $55 billion, South Korea $35 billion, the EU $60 billion, Switzerland $20 billion, and some ASEAN countries were forced to increase purchases of Boeing aircraft from the US. To date, the global tariff war initiated by Trump has not ended yet.
Trump's tariff extortion affected many economies around the world
Regarding the issue of Greenland, people did not take Trump's "purchase" remarks seriously last year, but now they are no longer so indifferent. Trump is serious, and Europeans are anxious: could Trump really invade NATO territory? This is a first in NATO history.
When it came to the Venezuela issue, last year the US military gathered forces in the Caribbean Sea and continuously conducted drug suppression operations. After a period of tension, Maduro believed that the US would not resort to military force, thinking it was just trying to extort Venezuela's oil. Both parties thought this way, and the outside world naturally held the same view. But who could have expected that, after the new year, Trump immediately launched a surprise attack on Venezuela, capturing Maduro, shocking the world. As a result, countries like Colombia, Iran, and Cuba were worried about following Maduro's fate.
On the issue of Iran, in June last year, Trump ordered the US military to bomb the country's nuclear facilities. Now, internal unrest has resurfaced in Iran, and Trump has repeatedly hinted at intervention. Last week, global media were all watching closely, waiting to see when Trump would strike. It might be that upon waking up, there would be a major news about "US air strikes on Iran."
Just like Napoleon and Hitler in the past, they also acted unpredictably. When Europeans thought Napoleon was going to attack Italy, he suddenly marched to Egypt. When Europeans thought Hitler would cross the sea to attack Britain, no one expected him to suddenly attack the Soviet Union. Diplomats in those two eras would wake up each morning wondering: what decision did Napoleon or Hitler make last night?
Trump will continue to create global hotspots
Now this feeling seems to have returned, and the world is forced to keep busy because of Trump's unpredictable personality.
Original: toutiao.com/article/7597292477096034866/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author himself.