NEW YORK – He makes threats, travels abroad and negotiates with world leaders.

Donald Trump He has more than a month and a half left before he is sworn in for a second term. But the Republican president-elect is already acting aggressively, not only to his office and define political objectives, but to achieve these priorities.

Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico, triggering emergency calls and a visit by the Canadian prime minister that resulted in what Trump claimed were commitments from the two US allies on new measures of border security.

The new president has warned that there will be “HELL TO PAY” if, before its inauguration on January 20, 2025, Hamas does not release the hostages held in Gaza. He has threatened to block the purchase of US Steel by a Japanese company, warning “Buyer beware!!!”

And this weekend, Trump returned to the world stage, join a host of other foreign leaders for the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, five years after it was ravaged by fire. On Saturday, he met French President Emmanuel Macron – joined at the last minute by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – and planned to also meet Britain’s Prince William in Paris.

Absent in Paris: lame-duck President Joe Biden, who has largely disappeared from the headlines except when he issued a forgiveness from his sonHunter, who faced conviction for gun crimes and tax evasion. First lady Jill Biden is present in his place.

“I think you’ve seen more things happen in the last two weeks than you have in the last four years. And we’re not even there yet,” Trump said in an exaggerated boast during an awards ceremony Thursday night.

However, for all of Trump’s bold talk, it’s unclear how much of his efforts will bear fruit.

Breaking precedent

Pre-inauguration threats and deal-making are highly unusual, like much of what Trump does, said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Princeton University.

“Transitions are always a bit complicated that way. Even though we are talking about one president at a time,” he said, “the reality is one president more. And this plus can sometimes act with confidence.”

Zelizer said this was especially true for Trump, who was president before and already has relationships with many foreign leaders such as Macron, who invited Trump and Biden to Paris this weekend as part of the celebration of Our- Lady.

“Right now, he’s sort of governing even though he’s not president yet. He organizes public meetings with foreign leaders, which are not simple presentations. He sets policy and negotiates things from drug trafficking to tariffs,” Zelizer said.

Meetings of foreign leaders

Trump has already met with several foreign leaders, in addition to a long list of calls. He hosted Argentine President Javier Milei in Florida at his Mar-a-Lago club in November. After the tariff threat, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago for a three-hour dinner meeting. Canadian officials later said the country was ready to make new investments in border security, with plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers.

Last Sunday, Trump had dinner with Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Israeli prime minister.

Trump’s new aides also met with their future foreign counterparts.

Several members of Trump’s team, including new national security adviser Mike Waltz, met with Andriy Yermak, one of Zelensky’s top aides, in Washington on Wednesday, as Ukraine tries to drum up support for its ongoing efforts to defend against Russian invasion, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Yermak also met with Trump officials in Florida, he wrote about.

This comes after Trump’s new Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited Qatar and Israel for high-level talks about a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, according to an American familiar with those efforts, during a meeting with the prime ministers of both countries.

One president, two votes

There is no ban on new officials or candidates meeting with foreign officials, and it is common and acceptable for them to do so – unless these meetings are designed to overturn or impact policy current American.

Trump aides would be particularly aware of potential conflicts given their experience in 2016, when interactions between Trump allies and Russian officials came under scrutiny. This included a phone call in which Trump’s new national security adviser, Michael Flynn, discussed new sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, suggesting things would improve after Trump becomes president . Flynn was later accused of lying to the FBI about the conversation.

Trump’s new press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that “all transition officials followed applicable laws in their interactions with foreign nationals.”

She added: “World leaders recognize that President Trump is returning to power and will lead forcefully to once again put the best interests of the United States of America first. This is why many foreign leaders and officials have contacted President Trump and his new team to correspond.

However, such efforts can lead to complications.

If, for example, Biden is having productive conversations about a thorny foreign policy issue and Trump intervenes, that could make it more difficult for Biden “because people are hearing two different voices” that might be in conflict, Zelizer said .

Leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Netanyahu may also anticipate a new, more supportive administration and wait out Biden, hoping for a better deal.

Coordination between incoming and outgoing administrations

It is also unclear to what extent the Biden administration has been kept informed of Trump’s transition efforts.

Although there is no requirement for a new administration to coordinate calls and meetings with foreign officials with the State Department or National Security Council, it has long been considered standard practice. This is partly because transition teams, particularly early in their activities, do not always have the most up-to-date information on the state of relations with foreign countries and may not have the resources, including interpretation and logistical capacity, necessary to manage such meetings. effectively.

Still, the Biden and Trump teams have been talking, particularly on the Middle East, with the incoming and outgoing administrations agreeing to work together on efforts to free hostages still held in Gaza, according to a U.S. official who, like others, was not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive discussions and spoke on condition of anonymity.

That includes conversations between Witkoff and Biden’s foreign policy team as well as Waltz and Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.

Last month, Biden administration officials said they had kept Trump’s team closely briefed on efforts to broker a deal. ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

“I just want to be clear to all of our adversaries: They cannot pit the new Trump administration against the Biden administration. I talk to people about Biden regularly. And so, this is not a moment of opportunity or blockage for them,” Waltz said Friday in an interview with Fox Business.

But when it comes to immigration, Biden administration officials are not fully aware of discussions about how to implement Trump’s pledge to expel millions of migrants, according to four Biden officials. administration with knowledge of the transition and who spoke on condition of anonymity. This isn’t very surprising given how differently teams view migration.

Give yourself credit already

Trump’s team, meanwhile, is already taking credit for everything from stock market gains and cryptocurrency markets to a decision of Walmart will step back the diversity, equity and inclusion policies that Trump opposes.

“Promises have been kept — and President Trump hasn’t even been inaugurated yet,” read a press release that claimed, in part, that Canada and Mexico have already committed to “act immediately” to help “stem the flow of illegal immigration and human trafficking”. , and deadly drugs entering the United States.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum did not say Trump misinterpreted their call in late November. But she said Friday that Trump “has his own way of communicating, like when we had a phone call and he wrote that we were going to close the border. This was never brought up during the phone call.

Earlier this week, Mexico made what it claims was the largest seizure of fentanyl pills ever. Seizures over the summer had been just 50 grams per week, and after Trump’s call, they seized more than a ton.

Security analyst David Saucedo said that “under pressure from Donald Trump, it appears that President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration is prepared to increase the capture of drug traffickers and drug seizures that Washington is demanding.”

Biden also attempted to take credit for the seizure in a statement Friday evening.

___ Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani, Colleen Long and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Mark Stevenson in Mexico contributed to this report.