Trump’s Leadership Isn’t Just About Tantrums
His inconvenient tactics at the G-7 and beyond are not necessarily irrational.
How he sees it.
Photographer: SAUL LOEB/AFPNo matter how tempting it is to write off President Trump’s G-7 antics as the capricious acting out of a big, petulant baby, that’s not going to do the world any good as long as he runs the U.S. Like it or not, Trump is a world leader trying to position himself between the points of a triangle: established rules and alliances, selfish U.S. interests and his own personality traits.
It may appear that he’s tossed the rules and alliances out the window – at least that’s how it’s seen in Europe and now also in Canada. Trump has pulled the U.S. out of one international agreement after another, hit allies with high import quotas and teased the flabbergasted leaders of the of the other six G-7 nations with outlandish proposals like readmitting Russia to the club or scrapping all tariffs altogether. The only reason to air these proposals, knowing they won’t be accepted, is to demonstrate a defiant disregard for the world order as we know it, a disregard that makes serious people suggest Russian President Vladimir Putin has something on Trump and is making him act in this disruptive way.