WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump delivers. And it removes.
Offended by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s increasingly assertive stance towards the United States, Trump revoked an invitation to join his Peace Council. Many Western allies are suspicious of the organization, which is chaired by Trump and was initially formed to focus on maintaining a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas but has grown into something that skeptics fear could rival the United Nations.
Appearing at the World Economic Forum, Trump talked about imposing tariffs on Switzerland — which he ultimately reduced — because the country’s leader “rubbed me the wrong way” during a phone call. Before imposing large tariffs on many European countries, Trump pressed Denmark to “say yes” to the US push to control Greenland “and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no and we will remember,” he said, jeopardizing the NATO alliance.
During his decades in public life, Trump has never been one for the good. But even by his standards, last week’s turmoil stood out because it crystallized his determination to overturn the rules-based order that has governed US foreign policy – and by extension most of the Western world – since World War II.
The president and his supporters have dismissed that approach as inefficient, overly focused on compromise and unresponsive to the needs of people facing rapid economic change. But instead, Trump is advancing a system that is poorly understood and may be far less stable, driven by the whims of a single, often mercurial leader, who regularly shows that personal flattery or animus can shape his decisions.
Returning to the United States from Davos, home to the World Economic Forum, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said the phrase she heard “over and over” was that “we’re entering this new world order” as she described a sense of confusion among allies.
“It could be that you just had a bad phone call with the president and now you’re going to have charges directed at you,” she told reporters. “This lack of stability and reliability, I think, is causing those who have traditionally been reliable trading partners to say to other countries, ‘Hey, maybe you and I should talk because I’m not sure what’s going on with the United States’.”
The Trump-centric approach to government
The Trump-centric approach to government is hardly surprising for someone who accepted his first Republican presidential nomination in 2016 by declaring that “I alone can fix” the nation’s problems. As he enters his second term with a much more confident demeanor than his first, he has delighted fans with his to-the-victor -goes-the-spoils style.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s former adviser, recently told The Atlantic that Trump is pursuing a “maximalist strategy” and that he wants to keep going “until it meets resistance.”
“And we got no resistance,” Bannon said.
This is certainly true in Washington, where the Republican-controlled Congress has done little to check Trump’s impulses. But the leaders of other countries, who have spent much of the Trump administration trying to find ways to work with him, are increasingly vocal.
Carney is emerging quickly as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to unite and fight the United States Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, “The middle powers must act together because if it is not on the table, it will be on the menu.”
“In a world of great power rivalry, the countries between them have a choice: to compete with each other for favor or to unite to create an impactful third way,” he continued. “We must not let the rise of hard powers blind us to the fact that the power of legitimacy, integrity and rules will remain strong – if we choose to wield it together.”
Trump did not take kindly to those remarks, responding with threats in Davos before accepting the Peace Council invitation.
“Canada lives because of the United States,” Trump said. “Remember that, Mark, next time you make your statements.”
Some leaders are pushing back
Carney, however, was unmoved, speaking of Canada as an “example for a world at sea” as he laid out a potential model for other world leaders navigating a new era.
“We can show that another way is possible, that the arc of history is not destined to bend towards authoritarianism and exclusion,” he said in a speech before a cabinet retreat in Quebec City.
In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Keir Starmer blasted Trump on Friday for “insulting and frankly appalling” comments in which he expressed doubt that NATO would support the United States if asked. The president seemed to ignore that the only time Article 5 of the founding treaty of NATO, which requires all member countries to help another member under threat, was invoked was after the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Referring to the non-US troops, Trump told Fox Business Network, “You know, they say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that, and they did, they stayed a little behind, a little away from the front lines.”
Starmer, noting the 457 British personnel who died and those who sustained injuries throughout their lives, said that he “will never forget their courage, their bravery and the sacrifice they made for their country.” Denmark, which Trump dismissed as “ungrateful” for US protection during World War II, had the highest death toll per capita among coalition forces in Afghanistan.
His tactics have raised fears that Trump is inflicting long-term damage on the United States’ standing in the world and prompting countries to rethink their alliances and deepen their ties with China. Carney already traveled there earlier this month to meet with President Xi Jinping.
“China’s leadership sees an American president fighting with allies, insulting world leaders, and engaging in strange antics, and they thought to themselves – this is nothing but good for us,” Jake Sullivan, former President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, said in an email.
The administration is showing no sign of backing down. In a social media post referring to Canada’s ties to Beijing, Trump said China “is going to eat them.” And the Pentagon released a defense strategy late Friday that told allies to manage their own security.
Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, was in Davos and participated in a bipartisan delegation to Denmark with Murkowski that was meant to show unity amid Trump’s Greenland bid. Recalling his conversations with other leaders, he told reporters on Friday that Trump has proven to back down only when countries like China “have shown toughness and resilience.”
“Those who were accommodating and who negotiated in good faith, such as the EU, which did not impose retaliatory tariffs, did not seem to win any of his respect,” Coons said. “They can come to their own conclusions, but it seems to me that trying to find a way to accommodate him when the foundation of his claims about Greenland is unshakable … seems to me to suggest a course of action.”
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Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, Rob Gillies in Toronto and Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.