London — In President Trump’s speech after he was sworn into office for a second term Monday, he outlined a number of policies that would change the U.S.’ relationship with the rest of the world. In addition to immediately clamping down on immigration across the southern border, Mr. Trump signed executive orders to pull the U.S. out of the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement.
While some international leaders congratulated Mr. Trump, others were unhappy with his first actions as president. Below is a look at reactions from around the world to Mr. Trump’s initial moves.
Reaction to Trump announcement on U.S. withdrawal from WHO
The WHO is the United Nations agency responsible for global public health. It has nearly 200 member states and plays a lead role in coordinating international responses to disease outbreaks and other health matters. Mr. Trump’s announcement started a year-long notice period for the U.S. to formally withdraw from the WHO and halt all financial contributions to the body.
Speaking Monday, Mr. Trump accused the WHO of mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic and other global health crises, saying the agency had failed to act free of “inappropriate political influence of WHO member states” and had required “unfairly onerous payments” from the U.S., disproportionate to what some other, larger countries, such as China, were paying.
“The World Health Organization regrets the announcement that the United States of America intends to withdraw from the Organization,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media.
“For over seven decades, WHO and the USA have saved countless lives and protected Americans and all people from health threats. Together, we ended smallpox, and together we have brought polio to the brink of eradication,” Tedros said. “We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe.”
The Reuters news agency quoted Germany’s health minister as saying Tuesday that Berlin would try to convince Mr. Trump to change his mind on the WHO, while China’s foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters “the role of the WHO should only be strengthened, not weakened.”
China will, as always, support the WHO in fulfilling its responsibilities,” spokesman Guo Jiakun said, according to the AFP news agency, adding that Beijing would “work towards building a shared community of health for humanity.
Reaction to Trump saying U.S. will pull out of Paris Climate Accords
In response to Mr. Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would pull out of the Paris Climate Accords — a move that will take a year to complete and that he initiated during his first term, too — U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said anyone not embracing clean energy would miss out on “massive profits, millions of manufacturing jobs and clean air.”
The Paris agreement is a legally binding treaty to address climate change that was adopted by 196 parties in 2015. Its goal is to prevent “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and try “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
Ignoring it only sends all that vast wealth to competitor economies, while climate disasters like droughts, wildfires and superstorms keep getting worse, destroying property and businesses, hitting nationwide food production, and driving economy-wide price inflation,” Stiell said, according to Reuters, adding that there was still room for the new Trump administration to change course.
“The door remains open to the Paris agreement, and we welcome constructive engagement from any and all countries,” Stiell said.
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union’s governing European Commission, said Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Europe would “stay the course, and keep working with all nations that want to protect nature and stop global warming.”
She vowed that the the 27-nation EU bloc would adhere to the terms and goals of the Paris agreement, which she said “continues to be the best hope for all humanity.”
“Unusual fear” in Europe
Georgios Samaras, a lecturer in public policy at King’s College London, said European leaders would need to decide how to position themselves in regard to Mr. Trump and his policies.
“I’ve spoken to colleagues in the European Union, and there is unusual fear right now in the commission, because they don’t know what’s next,” Samaras told CBS News. “I believe that Trump is going to choose his allies very carefully, and those who don’t bend the knee will face the consequences of Trump’s agenda.”
“The EU will either find a way to communicate with Trump or, similarly, they might be targeted,” he predicted.
Mr. Trump has threatened the EU with tariffs, but Von der Leyen sent him her “best wishes.”
“The EU looks forward to working closely with you to tackle global challenges,” the EU leader said in a social media post. “Together, our societies can achieve greater prosperity and strengthen their common security. This is the enduring strength of the transatlantic partnership.”
Reaction from other global voices to Trump’s inauguration
The initial reactions from many world leaders were congratulatory, despite simmering tension between Mr. Trump and some longstanding U.S. allies.
“For centuries, the relationship between our two nations has been one of collaboration, cooperation and enduring partnership,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has been repeatedly attacked in recent weeks by Trump appointee Elon Musk on social media, said. “With President Trump’s longstanding affection and historical ties to the United Kingdom, I know that depth of friendship will continue.”
In his final days in office, former President Joe Biden removed Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsored terrorism. Mr. Trump immediately reversed that move, which Cuba’s president Miquel Diaz-Canal called, “an act of arrogance and disregard for the truth.”
Mr. Trump again threatened in his inaugural address to take back control of the Panama Canal.
Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino responded shortly after his speech, reiterating in a statement that “the Canal is and will continue being Panamanian, and its administration will continue being under Panama’s control with respect to its permanent neutrality.”
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to Mr. Trump’s executive orders paving the way for U.S. troops to be sent to the southern border and designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Sheinbaum said that the orders were similar to policies under Mr. Trump’s previous administrations and that Mexico was, therefore, prepared.
“They can act in their territories within the framework of their constitution. What we say is: Stay away from our sovereignty, from our independence. We can coordinate, but we are a free, independent and sovereign country and we are going to seek coordination,” Sheinbaum said.
She also criticized Mr. Trump’s order to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”
“For us and for the whole world, it is still the Gulf of Mexico,” she said.
Mr. Trump did not immediately impose new tariffs on China, as he’d indicated he might, and he recently delayed a ban on Chinese-owned TikTok that was conceived under his previous administration and passed under Biden’s administration.
“China stands ready to work with the new U.S. government under the strategic guidance of the two presidents,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Guo said Tuesday, according to the South China Morning Post newspaper. “Economic ties between China and the US are essentially mutually beneficial despite differences and disputes. China believes there is space for cooperation and dialogue in this trade area and both countries can engage in more talks.”
In a video statement, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that “the best days of our alliance are yet to come.”
“Your first term as President was filled with groundbreaking moments,” Netanyahu said. “I’m confident that we will complete the defeat of Iran’s terror axis and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for our region.”
In Iran, the semi-official student news agency cited the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi as saying Tehran, as in the past, was ready to engage in direct negotiations with the new U.S. administration with the aim of getting sanctions lifted.
“If there will be also the same intention on the other side, the talks will take place and can reach a conclusion,” Gharibabadi said.
On the streets of Tehran, Iranians who spoke with CBS News voiced apprehension, given Mr. Trump’s previous hard line on policy regarding their country and the devastating impact of the sanctions already in place.
Kimia, a 26-year-old art graduate who declined to give her full name told CBS News that she hoped Mr. Trump would resume his “maximum pressure” tactic against her country’s leaders, to force it to change its domestic policies and allocate more resources for the good of the Iranian people “rather than other countries.”
But others voiced hope that Mr. Trump might usher new negotiations with Iran’s relatively new, reform-minded President Masoud Pezeshkian.
“This time, I believe President Trump and Iranian President Mr. Pezeshkian can have a positive negotiation, and there is hope that it will end up well for the Iranian people,” said Mayan, a 29-year-old master student in Tehran.
At a Russian security council meeting hours before Mr. Trump was sworn in, President Vladimir Putin praised the new administration for aiming to restore direct communication channels that Moscow says the Biden White House interrupted.
“Naturally, we welcome this stance and extend our congratulations to the President-elect of the United States of America on his inauguration,” Putin said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also congratulated Mr. Trump on Monday.
“President Trump is always decisive, and the peace through strength policy he announced provides an opportunity to strengthen American leadership and achieve a long-term and just peace, which is the top priority,” Zelenskyy said.
It is unclear how Mr. Trump will handle the war in Ukraine after vowing on the campaign trail to end the conflict there quickly. The U.S. has been providing huge amounts of military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
In a separate video message, Zelenskyy said the new American administration offered a good opportunity to achieve peace.
“Ukrainians are ready to work together with Americans to achieve peace, true peace,” he said. “This is an opportunity that must be seized.”
Seyed Bathaei and
contributed to this report.
