The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) has published its October Trump Administration Foreign Policy Tracker, assessing the administration's record across Iran, China, Europe, the Middle East and other areas.
The tracker said the administration intensified sanctions on Iran as the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continued to squeeze the clerical regime. The Treasury Department designated a Turkish bank, a Russian financial institution, an Iranian digital assets exchange and 27 Iranian airlines, and sanctioned companies in third countries servicing Mahan Air, which FDD said has long aided the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. However, the tracker said key gaps in sanctions enforcement remain: from September 23 to 27, 12 U.S.-sanctioned Iranian carriers operated at least 83 flights into Turkey.
On Iran, the tracker noted that President Trump rejected a seven-day ceasefire proposal that would have included opening the Strait of Hormuz and returning to nuclear negotiations. Trump said on September 27 that he expects talks to resume but that additional strikes are a possibility. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the same day that Iran has only 15 million barrels of oil on vessels outside the strait, which it sells to China, and will likely run out within two weeks.
The tracker also reported that Trump and Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping met at the White House, where they operationalized new trade and investment boards, advanced tariff relief for $30 billion in "non-sensitive" goods in each direction, and kept talks alive on rare earths, agriculture and commercial access. Disagreements over technology, Taiwan, supply chains and Iran remain largely unresolved.
In Europe, the tracker said Trump dispatched envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and, for the first time, Kyiv in early September, and invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit in Miami. It said the Kremlin has made clear it has no intention to halt the bloodshed absent Ukrainian capitulation.
The tracker further reported that Canada and 11 European countries, including the United Kingdom, jointly announced plans to introduce restrictions on trade with Israeli communities in the West Bank, prompting Israeli countermeasures against London, while the administration has largely remained silent. It also noted the United States paid $827 million to the United Nations on September 16, reducing its debt by about one-fifth, with remaining debt calculated at $4.2 billion.
The analyses, FDD said, do not necessarily represent the institutional views of the Washington, DC-based non-partisan policy institute.