The Third Eye: Is analysing Trump's Presidency challenge for strategic observers?

US President Donald Trump in his second term is beginning to attract criticism on three countshis pursuit of the idea of 'America First' was pushing the US towards 'isolationism', his focus on tariffs was adding to his image as a 'business leader' rather than a 'statesman' and his Presidency was getting marked for 'anti-liberalism' that ran counter to the historical American legacy.

- D.C. PATHAK

Does President Trump have the intellectual brilliance of a kind that enabled a leader to give the impression of his being 'unpredictable', 'arbitrary' and even terse to the point of sounding 'offensive' whereas in reality there was a 'method in his madness' as he towed a singular path for rectifying governance, controlling financial profligacy and not letting the world take the US for granted? Trump certainly would not like the US to lose the tag of being the first superpower. He has shrewdly identified the world problems that came in the way of American supremacy and has unwaveringly gone tough on them. These are Islamic Terrorism, a determined China trying to get the better of other countries through investment and trade to take the economic route to becoming the second superpower and the undue advantage friendly countries took of the US while projecting the latter as the leader of the Free World.

That President Donald Trump is willing to put all his energy into revolutionising America, is seen in his engagement in an astonishingly wide range of international crises and negotiations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

In his time the White House is pivoting many crucial diplomatic initiatives. He is catalysing many negotiations and has not done too badly in sorting out things because of his willingness to do a course correction if the move ran into a dead end. Some of this was evident after he advanced the claim that he had brought about a ceasefire between India and Pakistan when the two countries were in the midst of a military confrontation following the terrorist attack at Pahalgam.

In his innate desire to take credit for finding geopolitical solutions he even talked of mediating between India and Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir but quickly realised that the suggestion was going to create a huge problem for India-US relations. He therefore lost no time in stating that the two countries should talk to each other directly.