One of the main messages of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign was that he would put “adults” back in charge of foreign policy. Four years later, Donald Trump has returned to the White House and must clean up the mess these supposed “adults” left behind.

Trump and his foreign policy team have their work cut out for them after four years of doormat diplomacy practiced by Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Their modus operandi was to give terrorist and authoritarian regimes favors and financial aid in exchange for empty promises or, in some cases, not even that. They prioritized public relations “wins” guided by short-term thinking that Sullivan laughably insisted Biden ignored in favor of “a time horizon measured in decades.”