The president is slated to meet at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka with key allies and adversaries — including China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Japan’s Shinzo Abe, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman and India’s Narendra Modi — as he seeks to clinch an elusive trade pact with Beijing, consolidate international support in a tense staredown with Tehran and navigate a path forward on stalled nuclear talks with North Korea.
The complex panoply of issues has threatened to destabilize the global economy and potentially plunge the United States into another military conflagration in the Middle East. Though Trump has projected confidence, his tactics have set foreign capitals on edge, with fellow leaders uncertain in which direction the mercurial and impulsive president intends to head next.