Less than a week after taking office, it seemed clear that President Donald Trump had succeeded in changing Washington’s “policies,” not only domestically, but also abroad. Believing that the window before him might quickly close, he rushed in the first hours of entering the White House to sign a stream of executive orders, proving that his slogan “America First” was not just an election slogan. These policies soon dominated the world’s attention, from U.S. allies and rivals alike, as they tried to read how he would fulfill his election promises, make deals, and settle scores.

Stop foreign aid

Several US media outlets reported that Trump, during a meeting at the White House on Thursday night, told staff that he had made many promises during the campaign and now it was time to fulfill them. In implementation of the executive order he signed on Monday, which ordered a 90-day freeze on US foreign aid, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued an order on Friday to halt almost all US foreign aid, except for funding to Israel and Egypt, according to the internal memo. It stated that “no new funding to any entity shall be committed or any existing funding shall be extended until all new funding or extensions are reviewed and approved… in line with President Trump’s agenda.”

Israel and Egypt are among the largest recipients of U.S. military aid. Rubio’s memo notes that it is impossible for the new administration to assess whether existing foreign aid commitments are “non-duplicative, effective, and consistent with President Trump’s foreign policy.” While the memo excludes emergency food aid, it makes no mention of Ukraine, which under former President Joe Biden received billions of dollars in aid to defend itself against Russia. That suggests that aid has also been frozen, even though much of it went to U.S. arms manufacturers that were then sent to Kiev. The freeze could be highly contentious, since the money was already being recycled back to the United States, which is also a major source of Western weapons.

List of Rubio's Foreign Contacts

In another memo, Secretary of State Marco Rubio asked for a list of meetings or phone calls he planned to have, starting with China, followed by India, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Israel, the “legitimate president” of Venezuela, Canada, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey, NATO, Costa Rica, Poland, Israel again, Egypt, China again, and Vietnam. The list, which refers to foreign policy priorities, includes eight with countries in the Indo-Pacific, five in the Middle East, three in the Americas, one with Turkey, one with Poland, and one with NATO.

Wang warns Rubio

On Friday, the Associated Press reported that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said he had his first phone call with new U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, delivering a “subtle warning,” telling him: “You should behave properly.” “I hope you will behave accordingly,” Wang told Rubio, according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, using a Chinese phrase typically used by a teacher or principal to warn a student or employee to behave well and take responsibility for their actions. The short statement appeared to be aimed at Rubio’s outspoken criticism of China and its human rights record when he was a U.S. senator, which led the Chinese government to impose sanctions on him twice in 2020. The Chinese minister’s statement can be interpreted differently, with the Foreign Ministry previously using the phrase “make the right choice” and “be very careful about what you say or do” instead of “act accordingly.”

US arms sales rise

While the US State Department released a report on US arms sales to foreign governments in 2024 on Friday, showing a 29 percent increase to a record $318.7 billion, Poland’s defense minister warned Europeans that they must spend more on defense to win the support of US President Donald Trump. The State Department report shows that the rise in US arms sales came as countries sought to replenish their stockpiles after sending weapons to Ukraine and preparing for major conflicts. The figures from the final year of President Joe Biden’s administration support expectations of stronger sales for US arms makers such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, whose shares are expected to rise as global instability worsens.

President Trump has repeatedly called on allies to spend more on defense, and he wants other NATO members to spend 5 percent of their gross domestic product on defense, a massive increase from the current target of 2 percent, a level that many NATO countries have yet to reach. Defense contractors are struggling to meet the surge in demand, which has been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Spend more to get Trump to listen to you

Meanwhile, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz called on European countries to increase their military spending. “US President Donald Trump will not listen to your views on Ukraine unless you start seriously investing in your security,” he said in an interview on Saturday. “The recipe is simple: more defense spending, more investment in the military industry,” Kamysz said, according to Bloomberg. “Only then can Europe really have a seat at the negotiating table,” he added. The impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine is being felt in neighboring Poland and along NATO’s eastern flank, he added.

In addition to his demand for increased military spending, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on allies and adversaries in a virtual speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. When the forum’s CEO, Borge Brende, mentioned during the virtual discussion with Trump that the US president had called Chinese leader Xi Jinping just days before his inauguration, Trump immediately corrected him, saying, “He called me,” making it clear that world leaders are communicating with him, not the other way around. Trump pledged during his campaign to punish drug traffickers with the death penalty and threatened China, Mexico and Canada with tariffs, though his first week in office passed without such action, allaying concerns.