The defining features of Trump’s foreign policy are unpredictability and sidestepping from diplomatic institutions, making it a personality-driven enterprise. In the past, a complex network of diplomats, strategic institutions, intelligence evaluations, and alliance procedures was all essential to traditional American foreign policy. However, under Trump, foreign policy seems to be focused on a small group of family members, loyalists, and unofficial envoys, bypassing the institutional framework that has characterized American diplomacy in the past. 

Trump’s administration is pulling back career diplomats, leaving 115 ambassador posts unfulfilled in countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Ukraine. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s lifelong golf partner, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, are dealmakers in the Middle East. Massad Boulos, Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law, oversees the administration’s policy for Africa. Tom Barrack, Trump’s close friend and confidant of thirty years, serves as his ambassador to Turkey along with handling a broad Middle East portfolio, mediating ceasefire negotiations in Lebanon, and collaborating with Syria’s transitional government. 

Personalization of diplomacy has resulted in a foreign policy that is highly fluctuating, reactive, and contradictory. This discrepancy can be best explained by Trump’s stance on the crisis between Russia and Ukraine. In his election campaigns, he stated that once he returned to office, the war would end in a day. Contrary to rhetoric, the crisis persists without any significant diplomatic progress. Russia........

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