It is about safety and it is about money, next week at the NATO summit in The Hague. But it is now also about dignity and decency. From the start of his presidency, Donald Trump has shown that there is little to which he has no paint as a head of state of the most important country in the world. Diplomatic mores, judicial judgments, basic civil rights, international agreements, military commitments, advice from the own intelligence services: it all goes rapidly overboard. Except for his own ego and for political bullbakken – ‘strong leaders’ such as Russian President Vladimir Putin – Trump seems to have little respect.
Government leaders from all over the world have been wringing in all sorts of turns for months not to chase the US president in armor and, ideally, move to wise and reasonable policy on the international stage. The only thing they have received for it so far are blows in the face. Trump imposed high trading rates on friendly nations. Russia was spared on the contrary. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zenskyy was humiliated in the White House. Trump and his entourage try to influence actively and openly elections in Europe, in favor of populists and nationalists. There is flirting with territorial expansion. And NATO, once founded as a deterrent of an external enemy and to protect freedom and democracy, is now threatened from within by the most powerful member of the military alliance.
Also last week Trump again showed that he shocks and ignore allies. He left prematurely from the G7 summit in Canada, without an eye for host, guests or the huge themes on the table, such as, to name, a global trade war. A G7 statement about Iran was changed and tightened at his insistence, but that did not yield any bonus points: the US President leaves when he pleases him. On the way to Washington, a derogatory sneer followed to French President Macron, who would not understand it. “Emmanuel is always wrong.” Trump also called on a complete evacuation by Tehran via social media, as if he was about to have a city of 9 million people in the ashes. And this was after Trump had already said that Russia should be admitted to the G7 again, as if Putin is a best guy.
This is not the behavior of a world leader, but of a geopolitical pyromaniac. One that will be welcomed with all the Eggs in The Hague, the city is even closely locked for safety reasons. With the risk that Trump will find it enough after half a day and take the plane home. How to deal with so much political-diplomatic vandalism?
Trump wants to go into history as the man who achieved less war. “The estate that fulfills me most with pride will be that of a peacemaker and more unillert,” he said during his inaugural speech in January. However, he will go into the books, that conclusion can already be drawn if the president who destroyed the international order and thereby brought little for human lives. Stopping USAID leads to tens of thousands of extra deaths. Modifying the support of Ukraine at a crucial moment in the war takes extra human lives, because Putin has had the feeling that he can go his way with impunity. The attacks on Ukraine, and especially on civilian goals in the country, continue unabated. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has interpreted the Isolationism as a green light by Trump confessing to continue his course in the Middle East, after previously in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, now also in Iran. The army that Trump says he no longer wishes to use in the world is now being put in position against its own American population.
The question is of course whether that isolationism ever existed, because that too is Trump: unpredictability. “Maybe I do it, maybe not. Nobody knows what I’m going to do,” he responded this week to the question of whether the US will participate in the war against Iran. His inaugural words appear to be worth nothing. That means this week. Next week it will be different again. The wish of Western leaders to please and keep Trump on board is understandable, given the dominant role of the US in military and economic affairs. At the same time, the self -deduction cannot continue infinitely. Meelaching is one, crawling for the big boss is of a different order. In short, the NATO summit is also a diplomatic exam for the leaders present. They must show, also towards their own countrymen, that they also matter.