Never has the US had a president that defies the continuity of American foreign policy and refuses to recognise that America has only one president at a time. Mr Trump has loudly undermined all major actions being taken by the Obama administration, but it might be harder for him to bounce back from the sanctions that were just imposed on Russia due to their involvement in the election-related hacking. Trump has spoken highly of President Putin, agreeing with his comments criticising Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her party for blaming Russian hacking for their losses.

However, when President Barack Obama on Thursday ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian suspected spies and imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies over their involvement in hacking US political groups in the presidential election, he set up a potential crisis between Trump and the Congress over how to deal with an angry Moscow.

Despite President-elect Trump’s insistence that transition of power is going smoothly, recent events indicate otherwise, including his scathing tweet that Obama was creating roadblocks to his ascension to power. Tensions have soared over the draft resolution before the UN Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Secretary of State John Kerry accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “thwarting peace in the Middle East”, speaking with a harshness unheard of from any American diplomat when discussing one of their closest allies.

Despite the fact that Trump pressured the Obama administration to veto the resolution, and calling for Israel to “stay strong”, the US did not vote on the measure, which cleared it to pass on Friday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be looking forward to working with an administration more aligned with his extreme politics, but the growing international support for a two-state solution, could make it very hard for him to deal with the backlash.