Diplomacy in the Trump era: the bribe is no longer given in Istanbul, but in Washington

Since the beginning of Donald Trump's second presidential term, the USA has transformed from the defender of the democrats, the values and principles of the rule of law, as well as the rights and freedoms of the citizen, into a state in which decisions are imposed from Washington, without any kind of dialogue with civil society or international partners. Moreover, if the latter want to have good political, commercial, economic and diplomatic relations with the USA - that is to say with the Trump Administration - they must necessarily win the goodwill of the new master in the White House.

How? By paying a bribe, that is, offering a substantial gift, a kind of bribe or kickback, to the self-proclaimed peacemaker, know-it-all and businessman Donald Trump. If in history, the vassal states of the Ottoman Empire sent their lords to pay this fine in Istanbul, in front of the sultan, who had to kiss the tip of his shoe, today international political leaders, heads of state or government are forced to resort to a trick to avoid being lynched in the Oval Office as happened on February 24, 2025 with Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine: to give something to Donald Trump in advance. And that something has to be something worth at least a few billion dollars.

The first to learn this hard lesson, of the diplomacy of the strong, were those in Taiwan, who, in order to continue to ensure US military support against the Chinese threat, decided that the giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) would build a chip and semiconductor production unit in the US. The investment on American soil will exceed $100 billion.

After this announcement at the beginning of March, representatives of Japan also appeared in Washington. Threatened with huge tariffs, Tokyo's government representatives have rushed to negotiate a trade deal with the US, led by Donald Trump. The agreement was initialed, according to the Trump administration, on July 23, 2025, and stipulates that Japan will invest $550 billion to rebuild and expand US core industries, particularly in energy, semiconductor manufacturing, critical materials mining, processing and refining, pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing, and commercial and defense shipbuilding. The agreement stipulates that the US will keep 90% of the profits from this investment, ensuring that American workers, taxpayers and communities reap the vast majority of the benefits. Furthermore, Japan is committed to purchasing $8 billion worth of US goods, including corn, soybeans, fertilizers, bioethanol and sustainable aviation fuel. What do the Japanese get in return? 15% customs tariffs on products exported to the US.

Next on the list were the Europeans. In order to benefit from the 15% threshold on customs tariffs that producers in the European community bloc must pay for goods exported to the US, representatives of the European Union paid a substantial bribe to Donald Trump. They promised to purchase $750 billion in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and energy from the US and make $600 billion in investments on American soil.

After the EU bowed to the Trump Administration by Ursula von der Leyen, Alberto Costa and other prominent European leaders, Volodymyr Zelensky also joined the list. Like any man who, after having fried himself in soup, also blows on yogurt, the Ukrainian leader chose, after the heavy soaping he received from JD Vance and Donald Trump at the end of February, to humbly present himself before the American leader, offering him an agreement by which Ukraine will buy military equipment and weapons worth $100 billion with the support of the European Union. This, after previously, on April 30, representatives of the Kiev government and those of the Trump Administration concluded an agreement on the joint exploitation of mineral resources and rare earths on the territory of Ukraine.

We note that, after the agreement with Ukraine at the end of April, in order to benefit from reduced customs tariffs, representatives of Saudi Arabia concluded an agreement with the US in mid-May by which they commit to buying military equipment and weapons worth $142 billion. Moreover, in the first half of this year, Prince Mohammed bin Salman promised Donald Trump that Saudi Arabia would allocate $600 billion over the next four years to expand investment and trade with the US.

South Korea also joined Donald Trump's list of payers a few days ago. Frightened by Trump's statements on tariffs and a possible meeting between the US president and Kim Jong-Un, the president of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), the leaders from Seoul paid a visit to the White House where they presented the US president with an agreement that would oblige him to purchase LNG and energy from other sources worth $100 billion produced on American soil.

We also mention that the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, previously behaved in the same way, who, according to the State Department, concluded agreements with the US for the purchase of American military equipment, weapons and ammunition worth over $15 billion from the beginning of Donald Trump's second term to the present. Under these conditions, the Israeli prime minister has benefited from all the leniency of the American president regarding the operations that the IDF is carrying out in the Gaza Strip and, currently, in Gaza City.

Donald Trump's attitude is typical of an authoritarian leader with dictatorial tendencies, considering that he recently ordered the deployment of National Guard forces to the streets of Los Angeles to violently suppress protests against illegal, abusive deportations of migrants from the US, and now he wants to deploy the same forces to several cities on the East Coast, including Chicago, Washington, New York and Philadelphia, to round up homeless people and expel those who are foreign citizens from the US. Curiously, Trump's decision to send the forces to the streets of American cities only concerns localities led by mayors who belong to the Democratic Party, that is, they are part of the political opposition to the current American president, according to CNN, NBC News, Washington Post and New York Times.

In this context in which his actions are obvious and clearly show a behavior in which only physical, brute force counts and not logical arguments, Donald Trump allowed himself to declare two days ago that many Americans would like a dictator president, but he is not a dictator, but a man of common sense and an intelligent person.

That statement was reiterated yesterday, when, according to CNN, Donald Trump stated: "I am not a dictator. I only know how to stop crime".

Regarding Trump's statements, the governor of Illinois - J.B. Pritzker - told CNN: "If this were to happen in any other country, we would have no problem calling it what it is: a dangerous seizure of power. Trump is not a dictator, but an aspirant for that title".

In conclusion, the image of the United States under Donald Trump's second term is no longer that of a "beacon of democracy", but of a modern empire in which bribery, economic force and military pressure dictate international relations. World leaders, from Brussels to Riyadh, from Taipei to Seoul, find themselves forced to buy the goodwill of the American president, and Washington's foreign policy has become a global bargain where only the one who pays survives.