Trump's UN speech and Xi summit reveal limits of US diplomatic leverage

President Trump's high-profile engagements at the UN General Assembly and a White House summit with Xi Jinping this week aimed to reassert US global leadership, but the outcomes underscore constraints on his ability to shape international outcomes. The piece suggests that despite theatrical diplomacy, structural limits—such as allied skepticism and rival powers' counterweight—curb US influence. This matters as it signals a potential recalibration of US foreign policy expectations and could affect alliance cohesion and market perceptions of geopolitical stability.