Trump strives for an image of strength on foreign policy, but has a bumpy start

President Trump struggled on Friday to define and shape his new administration’s foreign policy, taking his first face-to-face meeting with a world leader, British Prime Minister Theresa May, and trying to move past an early nasty fight with Mexico.

A week into his presidency, Trump has confounded and confused the diplomatic establishment, leaving many veterans at a loss to discern a clear strategy.

While Trump has tried to project the image of renewed American strength, his inexperience in foreign policy matters has at times contradicted that message.

On Thursday, Trump picked a fight with the Mexican president over Trump’s insistence that the U.S.’s southern neighbor — a top trading partner — fund a border wall to block illegal immigration. Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto abruptly canceled their meeting scheduled for next week. But by Friday morning the pair were back on the telephone trying to smooth over differences.

On Saturday, Trump plans a friendly telephone call with traditional U.S. foe President Vladimir Putin of Russia, but Trump has laid out few details about how he intends to approach that fraught relationship.

And the new president risked angering Muslim allies with plans to impose sweeping new restrictions on refugees entering the U.S. from Syria and other war-torn countries.

Meanwhile, one of Trump’s other chief foreign-policy representatives, had tough talk of her own Friday.

Nikki Haley, on her first day as the administration’s new ambassador to the United Nations, promised significant change “in the way we do business. … Our goal with the administration is to show value at the U.N., and the way that we’ll show value is to show our strength, show our voice, have the backs of our allies, and make sure that our allies have our back, as well,” Haley said at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

“For those who don’t have our backs,’’ she warned ominously, “we’re taking names.”

Trump’s foreign-policy actions are having domestic consequences as well. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer added his voice Friday to those who said they will not support Trump’s selection for secretary of State, former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson.

“Just one week into his administration, President Trump is turning our foreign policy into shambles,” Schumer said. “His nominee for secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, a man who will not lift a finger to fight climate change and will not rule out a Muslim registry, would make it even worse.”

Tillerson has also wavered on whether to maintain sanctions against Russia. He narrowly won confirmation in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, by an 11-10 vote along strict party lines. He awaits confirmation from the full Senate.

For all his disruptive behavior in his first week in office, Trump took a more moderated tone and calm demeanor in the brief news conference with May.

Having declared a new policy of “America first” in his inauguration, Trump’s focus with May was on the potential benefits of increased bilateral trade with Britain.

May rose to power last summer after the British voted to leave the European Union in a referendum that Trump touted as a precursor to his own victory, both prompted by nationalist fervor.

But differences with May were also apparent.

May called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization “the bulwark of our collective defense.” She made a special point of saying that Trump had affirmed in their private meeting that he was “100% behind NATO.”

Trump, who has called NATO “obsolete” and suggested the United States might not honor its mutual-defense commitments, let May’s statement stand without comment.

On Russia, Trump said it was “too early” to discuss with Putin the lifting of sanctions, as his advisor Kellyanne Conway has suggested. Washington and the European Union slapped economic sanctions on Moscow after Putin annexed Crimea in 2014.

”We look to have a great relationship with all countries,” Trump said. “If we can have a great relationship with Russia and China, and with all countries, I’m all for that. That would be a tremendous asset.”

May, however, said flatly that sanctions should not be lifted until Russia pulls out of Crimea.

Trump confirmed he held an hour-long telephone conversation Friday with Mexico’s Peña Nieto. He did not offer many details of the conversation, but repeated oft-made complaints about what he said is Mexico’s unfair advantage in trade matters with the U.S. “They are beating us to a pulp,” Trump said.

Trump reiterated his belief that torture works as a terrorism-fighting tool. But he said he would leave the final decision over whether to use such techniques to Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis, who has voiced opposition.

Congress has outlawed the use of torture and lawmakers show little willingness to revisit the issue.

Even so, for a president who has presented himself as a muscular leader, Trump’s public statement that a Cabinet secretary’s views on a key issue would “override” his own was highly unusual.

Trump’s position on torture was another disagreement with May.

“We condemn the use of torture, and my view on that won’t change,” May told reporters on her flight to the U.S.

In terms of personal styles as well, the two could not be more different. Where Trump shoots from the hip and is at times rash, May is a stickler for details and prefers a labored decision-making process.

Asked about the contrast, Trump said: “I’m not as brash as you might think,” adding the two leaders would get along.

May arrived in the United States on Thursday, speaking to a gathering of House and Senate Republicans in Philadelphia just hours after Trump did. She highlighted the values Republicans shared with her Conservative Party and paid tribute to the new president.

His victory was “achieved in defiance of all of the pundits and the polls, and rooted not in the corridors of Washington, but in the hopes and aspirations of working men and women across this land,” she said.

She also conveyed the concern other Western leaders have about a Trump presidency: that in his declaration of “America first,” Trump signaled a U.S. retreat from its traditional role of global leadership.

“The leadership provided by our countries through the special relationship has done more than win wars and to overcome adversity. It made the modern world,” she said. “The institutions, upon which that world relies, were so often conceived by our two nations working together,” she added, citing the United Nations and NATO.

michael.memoli@latimes.com

For more White House coverage, follow @mikememoli on Twitter.

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UPDATES:

1:05 p.m.: This article was updated after the press conference with Trump and May.

This article was originally published at 3 a.m.