Donald Trump does not take office until January 20, but on the world stage he is already acting as if he is US president.
President-elect Trump has stamped his seal on US diplomacy on crises in Syria and Ukraine as his second spell in the White House approaches.
World leaders have jostled to talk to Trump and he was treated as the guest of honour at the grand reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on the weekend.
Lame-duck, single-term President Joe Biden, 82, was conspicuous by his absence at the ceremony, as he increasingly fades into the background.
The non-interventionist Trump has frequently spoken of his wish to keep the United States out of any more Middle Eastern wars and has called for a cut in US aid to Kyiv.
As Syria's President Bashar al Assad teetered on Saturday, Trump said on his Truth Social network that the United States should "not get involved" — despite the fact that it still has hundreds of troops in the north of the country.
Separately Trump, who has vowed staunch support for Israel, has warned there will be "hell to pay" if Gaza fighters do not free hostages by the time he is inaugurated.
The pronouncements followed a pattern for Trump, who shows every sign of surprising friend and foe alike by unveiling policies on social media.
Trump's shadow presidency is all the more potent because foreign leaders increasingly see the aging Biden as "basically non-existent," said The Soufan Group's Clarke.
"Most other world leaders, they're ready to move on and start trying to figure out how to deal with an incoming Trump administration," he added.
These include Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, who, despite his own fears that Trump could push Ukraine into a deal that sees it lose territory to Russia, met with the US president-elect in Paris under Macron's stewardship.
It creates a delicate situation for Biden as he tries to shore up his own foreign policy legacy against the man he once called a threat to democracy.
The outgoing Democrat has boosted military aid to Ukraine in his final months and partially claimed credit for both the fall of Assad and a ceasefire deal in Lebanon.
But Trump will still inherit from Biden one of the thorniest sets of foreign policy challenges of any president for decades.
"That's part of being the president, right? He's not only the president in good times, but in challenging times," said Clarke. — AFP
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