His approach is purely transactional, and he does not believe in mutually beneficial alliances. He thinks that Europe and Canada have been ‘ripping off’ the US and now must pay for it. His administration is systematically neutering international bodies, for example by sanctioning judges of the International Criminal Court. Former Estonian President Lennart Meri quipped that international law is the nuclear weapon of small states. Trump, however, is returning the world to the law of the jungle where weaker countries are vulnerable to larger predators.
Allies initially believed the best approach for dealing with Trump was to placate and flatter him, exemplified by the self-abasing fawning of NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. The US has nevertheless continued to treat its allies worse than hostile dictatorships. Other countries have now learned that making concessions to Trump only leads to greater demands. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was the first to articulate the gravity of the ‘rupture’ and assert that the old order is not coming back in his speech at Davos in January 2026. This was at the time when Europeans finally realized that Trump’s talk of taking over Greenland (the territory of Denmark, a NATO ally) was deadly serious. Trump has subsequently attacked Canada with egregious tariffs and questioned its sovereignty.
Täismahus artikkel on loetav Eesti Elu tellijatele
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