Eli Lake, Columnist

The 'Trump Effect': Allies and Adversaries Adapt to Uncertainty

"He may have been right that a lack of predictability can work in the favor of the United States."

November 22, 2016 at 4:07 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Russia and China are assessing their new frenemy, Trump.
Photographer: HOW HWEE YOUNG/AFP/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

During the presidential campaign, many foreign ambassadors quietly warned that a Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster.

It's easy to see why. As Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Clinton supporter, put it in a column over the weekend, Trump's victory marks the end of America as the anchor of a liberal international order.