Here are a few things to look out for in Trump’s major address:
The administration appears flummoxed that Iran has not blinked to the mounting pressure.
The pathway to a deal seems murky as the authoritarian clerics who rule Iran say they will only discuss the nuclear issue. The U.S. and Israel also want to address Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for regional armed proxies, including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.
Despite the slow pace, Russian President Vladimir Putin maintains his maximalist demands, saying Kyiv must pull its forces from four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed but never fully captured.
Trump argues it’s inevitable that Russia will win control of the Ukrainian territory and has pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal to save lives.
“Russia wants to make a deal, and Zelenskyy is going to have to get moving,” Trump said last week.
Ukraine, Russia and the rest of Europe will be listening closely to hear what Trump has to say about ending the war.
Expect Trump to once again celebrate last month’s capture of the Venezuelan leader in an audacious military operation.
Brian Fonseca, a scholar at Florida International University who studies the Americas, said Venezuela is a work in progress for Trump. But it may be the rare issue where he can clearly articulate how a foreign policy directive benefits Americans, Fonseca said.
“With Venezuela, he has the chance to say, ‘The U.S. military under my direction displaced a violent, narco-dictator that was repressing his own people and perpetuating the global drug trade,’” Fonseca said. “‘And, by the way, there are now opportunities for America to make a lot of money in Venezuela.’”
Any country that wants to “play games” with the Supreme Court decision, Trump posted on social media, will be met with “a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to.”
Bharat Ramamurti, who served as a deputy director of the White House National Economic Council in the Biden administration, predicted that Trump’s tack will lead to businesses and investors sitting on the sidelines because “they’re just not sure what the tariff outlook is going to be.”
“This decision and the follow-up to pursue other forms of tariffs under other legal authorities is only going to add to that confusion,” Ramamurti added.
___
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
