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Since his return to office, U.S. President Donald Trump has inarguably made U.S. foreign policy far more transactional and far less predictable than it was under all other previous administrations, including his own first term. This applies not just to Washington’s rupture in its relations with Europe and the Americas, but also across the Indo-Pacific, where U.S. allies and partners alike continue to reel from Trump’s erratic behavior. The latest case in point is South Korea—which thought it had a deal to lower reciprocal tariffs from an initial 25 percent to 20 percent, only to wake up last week to Trump deciding to reimpose 25 percent tariffs because he believed that Seoul was not moving quickly enough to implement the original deal.

Simply put, what Trump calls “deals” are typically just handshake agreements and nothing more. They are always subject to instantaneous change, depending on Trump’s mood and the politics of the moment—and thus, any “deal” that any country makes with the United States cannot and should not be trusted. This is why many Indo-Pacific nations’ attempts to appease him have failed.

Since his return to office, U.S. President Donald Trump has inarguably made U.S. foreign policy far more transactional and far less predictable than it was under all other previous administrations, including his own first term. This applies not just to Washington’s rupture in its relations with Europe and the Americas, but also across the Indo-Pacific, where U.S. allies and partners alike continue to reel from Trump’s erratic behavior. The latest case in point is South Korea—which thought it had a deal to lower reciprocal tariffs from an initial 25 percent to 20 percent, only to wake up last week to Trump deciding to reimpose 25 percent tariffs because he believed that Seoul was not moving quickly enough to implement the original deal.

Simply put, what Trump calls “deals” are typically just handshake agreements and nothing more. They are always subject to instantaneous change, depending on Trump’s mood and the politics of the moment—and thus, any “deal” that any country makes with the United States cannot and should not be trusted. This is why many Indo-Pacific nations’ attempts to........

© Foreign Policy