The U.S. president has used his blunt rhetoric to reshape trade deals and alliances across the globe.

Oren Cass, a former domestic policy director for Mitt Romney, hasn’t forgotten how the 2012 presidential candidate was “lambasted” by major financial publications and others at the time for suggesting the trade relationship with China wasn’t acceptable. Cut to the present, and that perception stands largely altered, though many aren’t happy with the trade war Washington has launched with Beijing to reset that equation. China hasn’t changed, but the man in the White House has. Whatever your opinion of Donald Trump, his straight talk and its influence on his foreign policy strategy are reshaping the world, according to a growing number of former officials and experts.

For decades, successive U.S. presidents have followed a set of common principles as their lodestar for diplomacy: long-term plans to further America’s strategic goals; an avowed — though selective — push for values like human rights and democracy; and a clear distinction between allies and enemies.

Trump has shredded that playbook. Yet his rare transparency and frankness on the global stage are yielding surprising results that may not have been possible with the approach his predecessors followed, say many neutral analysts.

Hamilton Mourão, vice presidential pick of Brazil’s newly elected far-right president, is an engine for the military’s growing political influence.

When his running mate was near-fatally knifed while campaigning last month, Brazilian vice presidential candidate Hamilton Mourão hurled diplomacy out the window. Rival presidential candidates in Brazil’s race grew unusually solemn, condemning the attack against far-right retired army captain Jair Bolsonaro, and denouncing hate and violence. No matter. “If people want to use violence, it is we,” Mourão proclaimed, referring to Brazil’s military, “who are the violence professionals.”

Mourão, 65, is a retired four-star general who has risen to heights he “never expected.” Chosen as a last-minute backup for vice president — a year after he publicly defended a military coup and earned his second army demotion — he now has, with Bolsonaro's sweeping victory this weekend, landed one seat away from Brazil’s presidency. Before his nomination, Mourão already symbolized the growth of military participation in Brazil’s politics as director of a training program for military and ex-military candidates. His new mission is to demonstrate approachability as a counterpart to the bombastic Bolsonaro and the international community on the idea that two military men who laud Brazil’s dictatorship period are the best solution to a volcanic social and economic crisis.

These toddler-size dolls have been around forever, but they have a special place on the classic car circuit.

Weaving among the 1958 Chevrolets, 1962 Cadillacs and 1975 Ford Thunderbirds at a classic car show in downtown Fort Myers, Florida, I see what looks like a red-haired toddler facing a palm tree, hands covering her face. She wears white sneakers, a poodle skirt and, rather disturbingly, a sign reading “My parents don’t want me. Take me home for $25.” A closer inspection reveals the toddler isn’t human, but a doll so lifelike that others are also looking twice. A man nearby bursts into laughter. “Yeah — picked her up from the flea market!” he shouts.

“Time out” dolls are faceless child look-alikes, reminiscent of the Grady sisters in The Shining. Also known by other names — pouting, corner, hide-and-seek, crybaby, punished — the dolls were once big finds at flea markets and antique stores. But, says Fort Myer’s Fleamasters Fleamarket employee Mary Tinaro, they have “had their season, and their season is over” (up until a couple of years ago the Fleamsters Fleamarket had an entire stall of time out dolls). The dolls can still be found, though, on sites like Etsy and eBay, in part because they remain a common — and creepily curious— fixture at many classic car shows.