On November 8, 2016, the course of history was changed when Donald J. Trump was elected President of the United States. At the time, many greatly feared a Trump administration. Liberals and leftists around the world feared that, due to his positions on immigration and Islam would result in the United States turning into a racist or even a fascist state. Globalists feared that his positions on trade would undermine the international order. In the end, however, none of those issues would be what defined his presidency. Instead, Donald Trump's presidency was defined by his foreign policy.
During his first term (2017-2021), he largely pursued a "peace with all nations" foreign policy, which resulted in the collapse of NATO. While this seemed to benefit the United States and was initially positively received, it quickly proved to be harmful to the rest of the world. As the balance of power in the Middle East changed as a result of the defeat of ISIS, the end of the Syrian Civil War, and the collapse of Saudi Arabia, revisionist powers such as Iran, Russia, and Turkey attempted to establish spheres of influence in the region, and also expand their borders, in an event known as the "Scramble for Arabia." Fearing Russian expansion, the European powers were quickly drawn into the Scramble for Arabia, causing a rapid rise in tensions that eventually resulted in the UK and Germany going to war with Russia in 2019. As Europe descended into its third major war in just over 100 years, Iran and Turkey began rapidly carving up the Middle East. This resulted in the European powers declaring war on Iran as well in 2020, while Turkey managed to escape their wrath by staying away from the Persian Gulf and instead focusing on the interior of the Levant and the Mediterranean coast. As the European war intensified, Turkey attempted to expand into the Balkans and North Africa as well, but with limited success. Meanwhile, in East Asia, China continued to pursue a militarily aggressive foreign policy, resulting in the United States forming a Tripartite Alliance with India and Japan to contain it. In 2020, the Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis resulted in a drastic deterioration in relations between China and the United States. The latter placed major sanctions on the former, resulting in an economic crisis so serious that many analysts began to consider the future collapse of the Communist government to be a real possibility.
In 2020, Trump was re-elected to a second term, but the mood was still uneasy. While the economy was getting better, the foreign policy situation was rapidly getting worse. 2021 was perhaps the worst year of Trump's presidency. In June, Iran and Russia declared war on Turkey in response to a series of clashes in the Caucasus. Following the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war, relations between Russia and the United States drastically deteriorated. The United States began to covertly support the Turks in order to protect its remaining oil interests in the Middle East from Iran, which had already overrun the Persian Gulf region. Russian President Vladimir Putin therefore saw the conflict with Turkey as a proxy war between Russia and the United States, and decided to respond accordingly. Russian jets and ships began to harass their American counterparts, and multiple cyber incidents took place. In July, a coup d'etat overthrew the Mexican government and replaced it with a nationalist dictatorship that not only advocated the seccession of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Utah, as well as parts of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming from the Union in favor of joining Mexico, but also had ties with the Russian government. Donald Trump refused to recognize the new Mexican government and promptly severed diplomatic relations. This was followed by a series of border clashes where the Trump wall suffered serious damage, and within six weeks of the coup, the United States and Mexico were at war. The Second Mexican-American war lasted only three weeks before American troops entered Mexico City, overthrew the junta, and installed a transitional government that essentially made Mexico a puppet state of the United States. Following the end of the war, tensions between the United States and Russia increased further. In response to Russian support of the Mexican junta, Trump began to send military aid and advisers to the British and the Germans, who by this point were on the verge of defeat in the European war. Meanwhile, Russia began increasing aid to leftist Latin American nations such as Cuba and Venezuela, who feared that the outcome of the Second Mexican-American war would set a precedent for further American aggression in the region. By December, many analysts believed that after a brief pause following the Trump's election, the Second Cold War was back on. However, what most did not expect, was a hot war. They were wrong.
In December 2021, China launched a massive surprise attack in Southeast Asia in order to obtain resources to fuel its faltering economy and expel American influence from the region. Simultaneously, North Korea invaded South Korea, now that its main patron was no longer demanding restraint against the United States. The United States immediately declared war on China, followed by India and Japan. Within days, the entire region had descended into war. Meanwhile, Russia and Iran both declared war on the United States in solidarity with China, as well as in response to increasing tensions over Europe and Turkey. It was now apparrent that WWIII was being fought, though most historians say that it had started in 2019, when the European war broke out/