US President Donald Trump gestures to supporters as he arrives for a campaign rally in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, on September 16, 2019.

President Donald Trump, a self-described deal-maker, is saddled with a long list of unresolved foreign policy deals he has yet to close heading into his U.N. visit this coming week.

There are challenges with Iran, North Korea, the Afghan Taliban, Israel and the Palestinians — not to mention a number of trade pacts. Some are inching forward. Some have stalled.

Trump has said repeatedly that he is in "no rush" to wrap up the deals. But negotiations take time. He is nearly three years into his presidency and the 2020 election looms, which will crimp his ability to tend to unfinished foreign business.

"I don't blame the president for having so many deals open," said Nicholas Burns, a former undersecretary of state who has worked for Republican and Democratic presidents. He gives Trump credit for going after China on its trade practices and talking to the Taliban to try to end 18 years of war in Afghanistan.

"But I do think you have to be tough-minded as citizens and grade him," Burns said. "How's he doing? Well, in my book, he doesn't have a single major foreign policy achievement in more than 2½ years in office."

Trump's critics say that lack of success means the president is going to the United Nations in a weakened position.

Some foreign policy experts give Trump credit for opening up international negotiations. Yet there is plentiful criticism of his brash negotiating style — blasting foreign leaders one day, making nice the next — because they think it makes the global chessboard more wobbly.

In his defense, Trump says: "It's the way I negotiate. It's done very well for me over the years, and it's doing even better for the country."

Trump's "America first" mantra hasn't gone over well at the United Nations before. Now, as tensions escalate between the U.S. and Iran, the president needs international support to help put pressure on Tehran.

Ever since Trump pulled the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal and reinstated crippling economic sanctions, Iran has lashed out. Iran downed an American drone, has impounded ships in the Persian Gulf and is being blamed for the attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities.