It Isn't Just Trump. America's Whole Reputation Is Shot

What happens when a superpower goes rogue.

- David Brooks

Many years ago, I asked a friend who had been hired as a senior foreign policy official what he'd learnt in government that he didn't know beforehand. He replied: "I used to think policymaking was 75 per cent about relationships. Now I realise it's 95 per cent about relationships."

It's very hard to do big things alone. So competent leaders and nations rely on relationships built on shared values, shared history and shared trust. They construct coalitions to take on the big challenges of the age, including the biggest: whether the 21st century is going to be a Chinese century or another American century.

In that contest, the Chinese have many advantages, but until recently America had the decisive one — we had more friends around the world. Unfortunately, over the last month and a half, America has smashed a lot of those relationships to smithereens.

President Donald Trump does not seem to notice or care that if you betray people, or jerk them around, they will revile you. Over the last few weeks, the Europeans have gone from shock to bewilderment to revulsion. This period was for them what 9/11 was for us — the stripping away of illusions, the exposure of an existential threat. The Europeans have realised that America, the nation they thought was their friend, is actually a rogue superpower.

In Canada and Mexico, you now win popularity by treating America as your foe. Over the next few years, I predict, Mr Trump will cut a deal with China, doing to Taiwan some version of what he has already done to Ukraine — betray the little guy to suck up to the big guy. Nations across Asia will come to the same conclusion the Europeans have already reached: America is a Judas.