Biden’s Worldview After Trump: Implications for the Asia-Pacific Economic Community and Trump’s Support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership

When Biden came into office, he sought to rebuild alliances strained during Trump’s first term, and tried to show that the United States remained engaged beyond its borders.

The rest of the world is going to be looking to hedge against the United States because of it being unreliable and risky.

Biden expanded NATO during his term. He worked to strengthen alliances in Asian countries to counter China. The Republicans note that Biden’s failure to withdraw from Afghanistan is a foreign policy failure and point out that wars in the Middle East have dragged on.

Trump has a fundamentally different worldview than Biden. He has preferred bilateral meetings where he can try to cut deals one-on-one, and his commitment to NATO and backing Ukraine in its war with Russia is murky.

While Trump may have a different approach than Biden and more traditional Republican leaders, he is likely to continue to be engaged in global affairs, said Danielle Pletka, with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank.

“The reality is that for many, many years now, we have had changes between Democratic administrations and Republican administrations,” Pletka said. She said that U.S. global leadership was not based on sentimental ideas about NATO, or about what great chardonnay we all get together at the G7.

The position was the same as Barack Obama in November of 2016 as he made a trip to meet leaders from the Asia Pacific Economic Community after Trump’s victory.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership was a deal that Obama tried to promote, but things fell through due to Trump’s election. The main message Obama gave in many of the meetings was that you need to wait and see. We don’t know exactly what a Trump presidency is going to be like,'” said Ben Rhodes, who was Obama’s deputy national security adviser, and was on that trip.

“This time around, I think all these countries have their own theory of how they’re going to deal with Trump and, frankly, probably are less interested in what Joe Biden or his team has to tell them about that because they’ve lived through Trump once,” Rhodes said.

“I would look to Biden to make some practical points, because the likelihood of the Trump administration imposing tariffs is real,” said Russel, now with the Asia Society. “That should be a clear call to the big offenders that they need to adjust their policies and practices.”

Up First newsletter: Trump returns to senator leadership, concedes criminals are in a blue, or red or blue state when formulating a plan for mass deportation

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Congress returns this week with a busy agenda. The first thing in the list is choosing the leader of the chamber. Donald Trump wants to affect these choices and his allies are trying to get him to do so.

One of Trump’s biggest decisions will be selecting the leader of the Justice Department. He criticized the DOJ on the campaign trail. Soon, he will have the opportunity to address his grievances.

One of Trump’s signature campaign promises was to “launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America.” Tom Homan has been named a ‘border czar’, to carry it out. Homan led Immigration and Customs Enforcement for part of Trump’s first term. Andrew Selee talked with Morning Edition about whether living in a red or blue state mattered when formulating a plan for mass deportation.

Source: Top contenders to lead the Senate. And, Trump’s DOJ priorities

What Attracted Her to the Mexican Cartel “Manitas” Del Monte: Karla Sofia Gascón’s Role

Karla Sofia Gascón plays the title role in the new film Emilia Pérez, the world’s first Mexican cartel musical focusing on a trans woman. When Gascón’s character is introduced, she is known as the cartel leader “Manitas” del Monte, who rules by fear and deadly force. But she wants to leave the life of violence behind and become her true self: a woman. She comes out of gender-affirming surgery performing good deed to correct the wrongs from her past. Steve Inskeep talked with Gascn about what attracted her to the role. Listen to what she had to say about the character and more.