Editorial Board
The World According to Trump
Maybe the president really believes that allies, values and institutions are for losers. But it’s the U.S. that will lose.
No meeting of minds.
Photograph: NurPhoto/NurPhoto
President Donald Trump recently wrapped up a three-week whirlwind of summitry, meeting with the leaders of Japan, France and Germany. If his visitors found the experience bewildering, who can blame them?
In the past few months the president has repudiated much of what the U.S. once believed about international relations. He’s advocated trade war as an instrument of policy. And he’s brought a jarring new approach to dealing with other governments — friendly and unfriendly — by means of a torrent of insults and flattery, threats and inducements.