Trump may enjoy Biden’s “terrible” foreign policy

President-elect Donald J. Trump comes into office with a view of America’s place in the world that is fundamentally different from that of his predecessor.

Mr. Trump is branding President Biden’s foreign policy “historically terrible” and vowing to reinstate the “America First” approach that shattered years of political consensus and rattled U.S. alliances around the world during his first term.

He is seeking friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, could cut U.S. support for Ukraine and has threatened to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He admires foreign autocrats and shows little interest in Mr. Biden’s goal of championing democracy abroad. He is hostile to international organizations and treaties such as the United Nations and the Paris Climate Agreement.

But amid the many areas where there could be disruption, Mr. Trump will also find many things to like about Mr. Biden’s policies. Aside from the glaring exceptions of Europe and its plans for Russia and Ukraine, Mr. Trump’s initial approach may bear a surprising similarity to the Biden status quo.

One reason is that abrupt foreign policy reversals are rare and difficult to implement, analysts say. America’s military, economic and political power tends to provide fairly firm influence over other countries. Pressure from allies, Congress and the federal bureaucracy is pushing commanders in chief toward consensus opinions.

“There tends to be more continuity between administrations of different parties — even administrations of very different styles like Trump and Biden — than the casual observer would expect,” said Richard Fontaine, the executive director of the Center for a New American Security nonpartisan Washington think tank. “We tend to focus on the big differences.”