Donald Trump made his own rules as a presidential candidate, and now he’s pushing ahead with global diplomacy in a similarly freewheeling fashion—with no Secretary of State yet in place and relatively little guidance from seasoned diplomatic advisers.

Trump plans to speak by phone Saturday with the leaders of Australia, France, Germany and Japan, as well as with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The calls follow his White House meeting Friday with British Prime Minister Theresa May, and a phone call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. On Monday, Trump will host Jordan’s King Abdullah, a crucial Arab ally.


The outreach comes despite the continued gaps in Trump’s diplomatic team. For decades, presidential meetings with foreign leaders have involved copious preparation by the State Department and the White House’s National Security Council which produces clear guidance to avoid surprises or misunderstandings that could trigger an international incident.

Trump is still filling vacancies, including for posts with responsibility for coordinating policy for Europe and Russia. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, a former military intelligence officer whose background is limited to the Middle East and Afghanistan, has no traditional diplomatic experience.

The State Department is also a work in progress: Trump's nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, isn't expected to be confirmed until Monday at the earliest. Even if he is confirmed as expected, Tillerson will need to install invaluable deputies—including new senior officials for Russia and the Middle East. The occupants of those two jobs, Victoria Nuland and Anne Patterson, resigned this month, taking a trove of institutional knowledge with them.

Even in some key parts of the State Department where new faces have arrived, confusion lingers. At the department’s influential office of Policy Planning—a kind of in-house think tank traditionally led by particularly bright minds—Carnegie Mellon associate professor Kiron Skinner has been working in the director’s office. But White House and State Department officials would not say whether she will be the new policy planning chief, and Skinner, a Harvard Ph.D. who has written extensively about Ronald Reagan, has had little contact with career staffers there.

The Trump team has recently unveiled the names of some incoming national security officials. On Wednesday the White House announced that Andrea Thompson, a retired Army intelligence officer, would be national security advisor to Vice President Mike Pence. Sebastian Gorka, national security editor for Breitbart News, and Victoria Coates, national security advisor to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will reportedly also join the national security council.

Trump's approach contrasts with the one adopted by President Barack Obama, who in 2009 retained George W. Bush’s defense secretary Robert Gates. Obama also kept on Bush’s top national security council official overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Douglas Lute.

One of Trump’s key conduits to foreign officials is his 36-year-old son in law, Jared Kushner, who's never worked in government. Kushner sat in on his meetings Friday with May.

A White House spokesman would not provide details on the preparations for Trump’s conversations with other leaders. A State Department official would say only that the department is “playing its traditional role to support the President in his engagement with foreign leaders.”

A lack of seasoned support didn’t prevent Trump from pulling off a seemingly smooth meeting with May. The two leaders held a cheerful joint press conference at which Trump showed relative self-restraint and sprang no surprises on the British leader.

The stakes will be higher in Trump’s call with Putin, his first as president, during which the men are expected to discuss the possibility that Trump might lift some U.S. sanctions on Moscow.

Even the idea of lifting sanctions is politically explosive. On Friday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned Trump that backing down on Russia would be “a reckless course” that he would seek to reverse with Congressional legislation.

The focus on Trump’s Putin call has overshadowed his planned talks Saturday with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Many analysts consider the German leader America’s most important ally, and President Barack Obama worked assiduously to develop a strong relationship with her.

Merkel greeted Trump’s election somewhat coolly, issuing a congratulatory statement that said she would cooperate with the incoming president on the basis of agreement over “values of democracy, freedom and respect for the law and the dignity of man, independent of origin, skin color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political views.”

The German chancellor is also a skeptic of Putin and will likely expect clarity from Trump about his plans for dealing with the Russian leader.

On Monday, Trump will host Jordan’s King Abdullah, whom many have long considered Washington’s closest friend in the Arab world—but who arrives amid politically explosive talk that Trump might seek to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, an act that could ignite the Palestinian population within and along Jordan’s borders.