Below is an essay by Zac Woodcock, Brighton College

This essay won the prize ‘Best use of evidence (joint winner)‘ in the inaugural FT-APG A Level Essay Competition, which was part of a broader project between the American Politics Group the Political Studies Association and the Schools Programme of the Financial Times. This project was funded by the excellence and impact funding of the Political Studies Association.

Commending Zac Woodcock, Mrs Jo-Anne Riley, Second Master, Brighton College, said:

‘We are delighted that Zac’s essay has been recognised for its excellent use of evidence in this exciting new competition run by the Financial Times and the American Politics Group. In an era when “fake news” and disinformation are on the rise, particularly in the online environment, the skills of careful research and awareness of provenance are paramount in helping young people successfully navigate the fast-moving world of politics.’

Does President Donald J. Trump represent an anomaly or reflect a broader strand of thought and action in American politics?   

On Tuesday 20th January, Canadian PM Mark Carney succinctly, yet with detail, summed up the current international stage and its turbulence at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Carney said that ‘the old world order is not coming back’, and ‘the world is in the midst of a rupture, not a transition’¹, and in doing so despite not mentioning the incumbent POTUS he made it clear who was responsible for this global shockwave, so much so that Canada’s invitation to the ‘board of peace’ was imminently withdrawn. President Donald J Trump is not just an outlier, but an extreme anomaly to not just America, but frankly the world. Since the founding of the UN in October 1945, ironically in the US, there has been no greater threat to the world’s most relevant globalist institution than the one currently conjured up by Donald Trump.

It is clear Trump’s strategy on foreign policy and influence is unlike any other US President. Trump’s antics on Greenland, or as he referred to it multiple times at the WEF ‘Iceland’, have restored the worldview that ‘might is right’.² Trump’s antics on Greenland haven’t been seen since Cold War times, and it certainly seems that Trump is taking this a step further by leveraging his allies with tariff threats, just for offering support of a territory’s sovereignty.³ His establishment of the ‘board of peace’, which ironically offered a seat to Russian president Vladimir Putin is a brazen attempt to dismantle the current international framework, and here’s why. Trump clearly views the UN, in fairness like a few of his predecessors, as a globalist failing institution.⁴ He fails to appreciate the fact it puts the ‘mighty USA’ on the same level as any other country; and a veto, a special privilege which has allowed the US to regularly derail UN resolutions over Gaza, hasn’t seemed to flatter him enough to come to accept the institution.

As the world moves back towards the recurring theme that ‘might is right’, Trump is looking to use his extortionate power on the international stage to establish and consolidate his place as the most powerful man on earth. The board of peace also gives Trump the perfect position to dictate international leaders’ opinions (in public at least). If the board of peace was immediately established when Trump took office, Gaza would be in the process of becoming the ‘riviera of the middle east’. Instead there are millions of Gazan’s dead, injured, or forcibly displaced; Ukraine may have lost US backing and would possibly had suffered extreme setbacks in their defence of the Russian invasion (Or with Putin’s influence on the board of directors it may be renamed a ‘special military operation’), and the whole middle east may be in even more of a crisis.

Trump’s actions on Venezuela likely have given China a precedent to attack Taiwan, and this could erupt not just Europe, but the world into a hot war.⁵ There is even an argument to be made, and already put forward by US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, that his hyper-aggressive overzealous international policy is partly driven to help control the media narrative, especially in the light of revelations related to Trump’s ties to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.⁶

As such there is clear evidence that President Donald J Trump is a huge anomaly in American politics, as no US president has ever gone to such a length to discredit and destroy international law and morals, especially to the point where he ‘no longer feels obliged to only think of peace’ because he didn’t get a Nobel Peace Prize.⁷ This train of action from Donald Trump is something never seen before, and his aggression towards his allies has not been seen post cold war. As the James Politi in the FT expertly put it, Trump is currently in the process of ‘taking on the world’, and there is worry worldwide that, for the first time in an exceptionally long time, an active US president may completely lose regard for international law, global institutions, and finally, yet crucially, peace.⁸ This is further reflected in an article by Mohammed Fairouz in OpenDemocracy, which show how the Republican party under Trump have reached new extremes.⁹

There are elements of Trump’s domestic policy which can be seen as aligning with a broader strand of thought. The main element which satisfies this idea is his stance on immigration. In fact, it’s widely viewed as the truth that Trump was able to win the election due to his fearmongering over immigration. A YouGov poll found immigration was the most important issue facing the USA in 2024.¹⁰ This is absolutely a global mainstream shift, as we can see through the surge in support for Reform UK in the United Kingdom, the AfD in Germany, and Georgia Meloni in Italy. These ‘new right figures’ are a clear example of a surge in support for right wing thinkers because of the issue of immigration, and the failure of the centre ground to quash this issue. This puts Trump in a consistent position to many European political frontrunners, due to them both looking to use immigration as a foothold to persuade the independents.

In addition to Trump’s ‘mainstream populist right’ immigration views, his position on international interventionism is not something new. Trump’s actions on Venezuela may have drawn heavy critics, but the biggest media narrative surrounding this is what happens next. The USA has an unwanted record from previous presidents of being unable to successfully withdraw from a nation it intervened in while simultaneously managing the country’s future to allow democratic sustainability. The president of the United States has many times intervened in catalysing regime change, and Venezuela is just another example to add to a multitude of previous actions. One of the most recent examples of US interference in regime change in Libya 2011 under Democrat Barack Obama.¹¹ Obama helped spearhead a coalition of twenty seven nations who all combined to oust Gaddafi leading the National Transient Council to take control. While the National Transient Council may be more of a neutral ruling body then the current US administration who are currently helping rule Venezuela, to the point Trump posted on TruthSocial about him being the ‘acting president’ of Venezuela¹², this is not an anomaly in the sense that the US has previously not hesitated to remove hostile dictators – or election riggers in Maduro’s case (allegedly).¹³

To answer the question of whether these actions slot into a broader stand of thought, it seems most definitely to be the case. This is not a lone example, and the US has previously been even more aggressive in the Americas, namely in Grenada in 1983. The US joined six other Caribbean countries in an attempt to force regime change in Grenada, and did so by overthrowing Hudson Austin.¹⁴ Austin was a leader that the US regime deemed to be hostile, and geographically too close, so Reagan felt it was necessary to launch Operation Urgent Fury and topple him. The Regan administration used multiple lines and pieces of rhetoric to circumvent international law duties, just as the Trump administration did on the capture of Maduro. This is a clear example of a part of Trump’s foreign policy reflecting a broader strand of thought, as he joins a long list of US presidents in forcing and assisting regime change in countries they feel have hostile and damaging leadership.

The question on whether Trump is an anomaly or a representation of a broader strand of thought could be debated on thousands of pages, and still not contain sufficient enough detail to descriptively describe all of Trump’s actions over both his terms that see him categorized as an anomaly. However, Trump’s actions on the international stage, especially over Greenland and the ‘Board of peace’ show just how unprecedented the actions of Donald Trump and his agreeable cabinet are, and he shows absolutely no sign of holding up. The fact an incumbent US president is so unhinged he is directly threatening an ally with military force, to the point it damages his own stock market, while initiating trade wars with allies, and allowing his own immigration force to kill two US nationals and defend them robustly in the face of criticism to the point of blocking investigations, while also investigating his own FED chair because he’s not lowering interest rates just shows how eventfully shocking his leadership has been.^{15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20}

Donald Trump is an anomaly, and his actions are arguably the most extreme ever by a sitting US president.

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¹ Nadine Yousif,”Carney says the old world order ‘is not coming back’”, BBC News, January 20, 2026 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly3d28p4p8o

² Bryony Gooch “Trump appears to confuse Greenland with Iceland in speech on taking territory” Independent, January 22, 2026 ttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-iceland-greenland-davos-speech-wef-b2905267.html

³ Henri Astier and Bernd Debusmann Jr, “Trump tariff threat over Greenland ‘unacceptable’, European leaders say”, BBC News, January 17, 2026 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4qjwk9n2no

⁴ Eva Hartog, “Putin on Trump’s Gaza peace board invite: Not no”, Politico EU, January 22, 2026  https://www.politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-donald-trump-gaza-peace-board-invite/

⁵ Jasper Ward, “Trump says Venezuela does not give China a Taiwan precident, but ‘it’s up to’ Xi”, Reuters, January 8, 2026 https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/trump-says-venezuela-does-not-give-china-taiwan-precedent-its-up-to-xi-2026-01-08/    

⁶ Edward Helmore, “‘It sends a horrible signal’: US politicians react to the capture of Nicolas Maduro” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/03/us-politicians-reaction-capture-venezuelan-president-maduro, Guardian, January 3rd, 2026

⁷ Mallory Moench, “Trump ties Greenland demands to Nobel Prize in message to Norway leader”, BBC News, January 19th, 2026 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy7mev35x2lo

⁸James Politi, “Trump takes on the world in week of shock and awe”, FT, January 9, 2026 https://www.ft.com/content/c724d48f-15de-4379-a671-ae70b4233aee

⁹ Mohammed Fairouz, “Trump is a global anomaly rather than the new normal” , OpenDemocracy, May 26, 2017 https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/trump-is-global-anomaly-rather-than-new-normal/

¹⁰ Khalea Robertson, “Attitudes on Immigration in the 2024 U.S elections”, AS-COA, October 25, 2024 https://www.as-coa.org/articles/poll-tracker-attitudes-immigration-2024-us-elections

¹¹ Doug Bandow, “The Obama Administration wrecked Libya for a generation”, CATO, January 10, 2020

¹²Joe Sommerlad, “Trump shares fake Wikipedia page calling himself ‘Acting President’ of Venezuela”, Independent, January 12, 2026 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-acting-president-venezuela-wikipedia-b2898695.html

¹³ Tiago Rogero, “Evidence shows Venezuela’s election was stolen – but will Maduro budge”, Guardian, August 6, 2024 https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/06/venezuela-election-maduro-analysis AND Javier Corrales, Dorothy Kronick, “How Maduro Stole Venezuela’s Vote”, January 2025 https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/how-maduro-stole-venezuelas-vote/

¹⁴ Micheal Poznansky, “Operation Urgent Fury: Grenada”, Oxford Academic, June 18, 2020 https://academic.oup.com/book/40518/chapter-abstract/347839035?redirectedFrom=fulltext

¹⁵ Al Jazeera English news team, “Trump threatens to take Greenland “the hard way, citing Arctic strategy”, Al Jazeera English Youtube Channel, January 12, 2026 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mhTPwTH0Ao

¹⁶ Steff Chavez, Aime Williams, Richard Milne, “Donald Trump threatens tariffs on allies over opposition to Greenland plan”, FT, January 16, 2026   https://www.ft.com/content/8c804726-aecb-4d48-b532-91334be8cd1b

¹⁷  Holly Williams, “Global markets ratted as Donald Trump issues Greenland and tariff threats”, Yahoo News, January 20, 2026 https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/global-markets-rattled-donald-trump-095128491.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAINQK00v5sZQvlC028UIQaAE1wHHILyTBm0ydywmIIcK-g_k7YcvILEWdmcS1sm5IMcCL28DwXfhRpCZ3CEbd67-iELdfgU19pNWlfaU4JseQiv1UKkni2IEAYAEvqrdNCAt9kWHZG7Mvl9YL58t2Vt20Bus6LYlBTiVLnlG7ZkA

¹⁸ No named author, Trump: ‘Phenomenal’ ICE will leave Minneapolis at some point”, The Times, January 2026 https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/trump-ice-leave-minneapolis-operation-alex-pretti-9c720pthc?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqeaPqr4px4U_jpJLsbFY-4mCS7eVcyMDZwCixTmIRkFl10xL3osB_TOq4urls0%3D&gaa_ts=697765f2&gaa_sig=8WA9G3V6hIoLH3YqolkwHbBNk0FAFMHx1-r5kV7duR4L2y1RND1VVl1hMNdZ5gOp88D_rOXKiAK-VTUYZ_PJoA%3D%3D

¹⁹ Shrai Popat, “Federal prosecutors reportedly blocked from investigating Renee Good’s killing – as it happened”, The Guardian, January 24, 2026 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/jan/23/ice-immigration-protests-trump-minnesota-economic-blackout-latest-news?page=with%3Ablock-6973c66f8f0839147948fabb

²⁰ Steff Chavez, “The backlash against Donald Trump’s criminal probe into Jay Powell”, FT, January 13, 2026  https://www.ft.com/content/ccbb0076-1be3-4ce3-be6f-4c31731f52d2