On Donald Trump’s inauguration day Western media was left struggling for headlines. His supporters focused on his anti-immigration executive orders, and his pledge to direct members of his cabinet “to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and price.”

His detractors are still expressing indignation at his pardoning the 6 January 2020 convicted rioters, taking USA out of the Paris Climate accord and World Health Organisation (WHO) with some ridiculing his intent to take over the Panama Canal, buy Greenland from Denmark and rename Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America.

America’s allies are no doubt focused on his statement that “instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. For this purpose, we are establishing the External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties, and revenues.”

In his first week in office, Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, with China to face an additional 10 percent. In his virtual address to the World Economic Forum, Trump expressed concern at the recent decisions by the European Union to penalise some US companies, including Google.

The US European allies are equally concerned about Trump’s policy on Ukraine and NATO, while the Muslim world is riled up about his reported green-lighting Netanyahu to merely pause, not end, the genocide of Palestinians. There is thus an entire range of bad for most countries in Trump’s one week of public interactions – allies and foes alike. Pakistan is no exception.

A continuing general perception in Pakistan is that stakeholders remain concerned at the possibility of overt pressure by the Trump administration towards political reconciliation.

And there is concern over the number of Pakistanis who will be impacted by his anti-immigration policy decisions however while in recent years’ Pakistani administrations have air-lifted nationals caught in conflicts abroad, due largely to the effective use social media by those affected, yet they have been at best ineffective and at worst reticent........

© Business Recorder