SRF News: How do you explain Trump's activism in recent days?

Stephan Bierling: It's not difficult to explain. He has certain groups of voters whose concerns he has promised to satisfy. He has promised the withdrawal from all wars. He promised to deregulate. And now he wants to offer the economic liberals, the angry citizens and also the evangelicals something in his last days in office.

Many of his decisions concern foreign policy. Why?

Trump has achieved the least there so far. The repatriation of all the troops he promised did not take place. He has even been much more active with Iran in Iraq. This means that now he has the last opportunity to lead the USA on the path he promised.

The troop withdrawal is an election campaign promise from 2016. Why now?

For one, Trump is trying to work on his legacy. He knows that he will leave the presidency on January 20th. But he wants to remain an important force in the Republican Party.

He wants to offer the economic liberals, the angry citizens and also the evangelicals something in his last days in office.
There is speculation about his re-running for the 2024 elections. That means that he has to keep his core clientele, who have brought him into the White House, to the bar. So he offers you everything you expect from him again.

Mike Pompeo is the first US Secretary of State to visit controversial settlements in the West Bank and the Golan Heights. How come?

Trump's foreign policy is always about his domestic election opportunities. The visit to the settlements is an initiative to keep a second major constituency, the evangelicals, who overwhelmingly voted Trump in motion. You are absolutely loyal, not only to Israel, but also to the expansive policies in the occupied territories. In this respect, it is another signal to this group.

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Trump wants to move forward in the controversial production of oil and natural gas in a nature reserve in Alaska. For the same reason?

Yes. The third major group of voters he had in 2016 are the business liberals. He has promised you tax cuts, deregulations, and dismantling of requirements in the social sector, but also in the environmental sector. Opening up nature reserves to oil and gas production is exactly that.

With every hour that Trump announces something that America is not keeping engaged in the world, the US's negotiating position weakens.
At the end of his term of office he wants to hammer in stakes there too, in order to bind the group to himself. That gives him power, even after the presidency.

Trump serves his clientele again in the last few meters. From a strategic point of view, he seems to have thought about a lot.

In terms of election strategy, what he is doing is very clever, but it is a catastrophe for the global political situation in the USA. His closest security advisers, including many Republican MPs, are against the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq because Trump is reducing bargaining power. Talks are ongoing between the US and the Taliban in Qatar. And with every hour that Trump announces something that America is not keeping engaged in the world, the US's negotiating position is getting weaker.