How Trump is changing the world without lifting a finger

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

63% : Yoon Suk Yeol, the South Korean president, has reportedly taken up golf lessons in anticipation of Trump's return to office (Trump being a well-known fan of the sport).
61% : Last month, it stepped up nuclear negotiations with the UK, France and Germany, in a bid to find a breakthrough before Trump's inauguration.
59% : Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, has spent the two months since his appointment in October touring European capitals, as well as meeting with Trump in Florida.
57% : However, it is undeniable that Trump is already having an influence on world affairs, both directly and indirectly, from Tel Aviv to Tehran, Riyadh to Riga, the Californian State Legislature to the Chinese Politburo.
56% : "Leonard also points out the increased willingness of the EU to pivot to other markets.
54% : "The president-elect doesn't take over for six more weeks, but - magically - he has already made America great again," joked a column in the Washington Post last weekend, mocking Donald Trump for his claims to have stopped migration through Mexico, turned the US economy into the envy of the world and brought peace to the Middle East.
53% : "It breaks protocol," says Dr Luca Trenta, associate professor in International Relations at Swansea University.
52% : "Or it could be a signal to Trump and other international partners that they're ready to negotiate.
51% : On America's southern border, Claudia Sheinbuam, the president of Mexico, was treated with slightly more respect during a "very productive conversation" last month in which Trump claimed (and she denied) that there would be no more migration through Mexico.
46% : This year, it has been made even stranger by the contrast between an outgoing incumbent for whom the term "lame duck" seems a generous moniker and an energetic incoming president-elect who is the first candidate to win non-consecutive terms in 130 years.
46% : "Until January, Trump isn't president, so there shouldn't be official, publicised meetings while another president is in power.
46% : "Although Trump has described "tariff" as the "most beautiful word in the dictionary", many Americans are worried that they will increase prices and complicate supply chains.
44% : Asked by Time about the chances of going to war with Iran during his presidency, Trump replied: "Anything can happen.
44% : "They're looking at what Trump has been saying and what he is likely to do, and therefore building up their arsenal to counteract the possible protectionist measures issued by the Trump administration," Kelvin Lam at Pantheon Macroeconomics told the Telegraph.America's other trading partners are also taking steps to protect themselves, some in unusual ways.
44% : In his NBC interview last weekend, Trump attempted to strike a softer note, saying that his inaugural address as 47 president would be different from the "American carnage" tone of his address as 45president.
44% : "I can't guarantee anything," Trump told his NBC interviewer last weekend, pressed on whether tariffs would trigger inflation.
37% : "Although the EU is thinking about counter-measures, I think their preference is to make an offer to stop this happening," says Mark Leonard, co-founder of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
33% : This dramatic escalation has been interpreted as both Iranian self-defence against a resurgent Israel and a way of signalling to Washington that it is ready to re-negotiate the deal Trump relinquished in 2018.
33% : "Trump is a deal-maker, so they will be thinking along those lines - for example, buying liquefied natural gas or weapons from America.
31% : Trump has spent a decade castigating European powers for failing to take responsibility for defence, telling a rally in February this year that he would encourage Russia to do "whatever the hell they wanted" to countries who didn't stump up.
28% : Exhausted Ukrainian officials, irritated by Biden's cautious approach, have told reporters that they're open to the "trip to the casino" of negotiating under Trump.
28% : And although Trump can claim no credit for these developments - "This is not our fight.
25% : Trump definitely wouldn't want to be dragged into Israel's irredentist ambitions.
25% : "So, is Iran going to "come begging" for a new deal, as Trump predicted six years ago?"There are signals through backchannels that Iran wants to talk," says Vakil, pointing to Elon Musk's meeting last month with Iran's UN ambassador in New York (a meeting that Trump claimed not to know about).
24% : And then, for good measure, he added on X: "I told President Trump that Putin fears only him and, perhaps, China.
22% : "Trump doesn't like to deal collectively.
14% : Within the EU itself, not only are France and Germany largely rudderless at the moment owing to internal problems, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, is perceived as a Biden confidante, the EU Presidency rotates every six months and Trump himself has described the bloc as "worse than China".
14% : This week, the Washington Post reported that federal employees are combing their social network profiles to delete any negative posts about Trump.

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