Everyone but Trump Understands What Heâs Done - Ibbit
Donald Trump does not think strategically. Nor does he think historically,
geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one
day to events that occur weeks later. He does not think about how his behavior
in one place will change the behavior of other people in other places. He does
not consider the wider implications of his decisions. He does not take
responsibility when these decisions go wrong. Instead, he acts on whim and
impulse, and when he changes his mindâwhen he feels new whims and new
impulsesâhe simply lies about whatever he said or did before. For the past 14
months, few foreign leaders have been able to acknowledge that someone without
any strategy can actually be president of the United States. Surely, the
foreign-policy analysts murmured, Trump thinks beyond the current moment.
Surely, foreign statesmen whispered, he adheres to some ideology, some pattern,
some plan. Words were thrown aroundâisolationism, imperialismâin an attempt to
place Trumpâs actions into a historical context. Solemn articles were written
about the supposed significance of Greenland, for example, as if Trumpâs
interest in the Arctic island were not entirely derived from the fact that it
looks very large on a Mercator projection. This week, something broke. Maybe
Trump does not understand the link between the past and the present, but other
people do. They can see that, as a result of decisions that Trump made but
cannot explain, the Strait of Hormuz is blocked by Iranian mines and drones.
They can see oil prices rising around the world and they understand that it is
difficult and dangerous for the U.S. Navy to solve this problem. They can also
hear the president lashing out, as he has done so many times before, trying to
get other people to take responsibility, threatening them if they donât. [From
the March 2026 issue: America vs. the world
[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/03/trump-national-security-greenland-spheres-of-interest/685673/]]
NATO faces a âvery badâ future if it doesnât help clear the strait, Trump told
the Financial Times, apparently forgetting that the United States founded the
organization and has led it since its creation in 1949. He has also said he is
not asking but ordering seven countries to help. He did not specify which ones.
âIâm demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory
because it is their territory,â Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on the
way from Florida to Washington. âItâs the place from which they get their
energy.â Actually it isnât their territory, and itâs his fault that their energy
is blocked. But in Trumpâs mind, these threats are justified: He has a problem
right now, so he wants other countries to solve it. He doesnât seem to remember
or care what he said to their leaders last month or last year, nor does he know
how his previous decisions shaped public opinion in their countries or harmed
their interests. But they remember, they care, and they know. Specifically, they
remember that for 14 months, the American president has tariffed them, mocked
their security concerns, and repeatedly insulted them. As long ago as January
2020, Trump told
[https://www.reuters.com/world/we-will-never-help-europe-under-attack-eu-official-cites-trump-saying-2024-01-10/]
several European officials that âif Europe is under attack, we will never come
to help you and to support you.â In February 2025, he told
[https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-trump-and-zelenskyy-said-during-their-heated-argument-in-the-oval-office]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he had no right to expect support
either, because âyou donât have any cards.â Trump ridiculed Canada as the â51st
stateâ and referred to both the present and previous Canadian prime ministers as
âgovernor.â He claimed, incorrectly, that allied troops in Afghanistan âstayed a
little back, a little off the front lines,â causing huge offense to the families
of soldiers who died fighting after NATO invoked Article 5 of the organizationâs
treaty, on behalf of the United States, the only time it has done so. He called
the British âour once-great ally,â after they refused to participate in the
initial assault on Iran; when they discussed sending some aircraft carriers to
the Persian Gulf conflict earlier this month, he ridiculed
[https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116189925042301817] the idea on
social media: âWe donât need people that join Wars after weâve already won!" At
times, the ugly talk changed into something worse. Before his second
inauguration, Trump began hinting
[https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/01/trump-greenland-crisis-denmark-europe/681371/]
that he wouldnât rule out using force to annex Greenland, a territory of
Denmark, a close NATO ally. At first this seemed like a troll or a joke; by
January 2026, his public and private comments persuaded the Danes to prepare for
an American invasion. Danish leaders had to think about whether their military
would shoot down American planes, kill American soldiers, and be killed by them,
an exercise so wrenching that some still havenât recovered. In Copenhagen a few
weeks ago, I was shown a Danish app that tells users which products are
American, so that they know not to buy them. At the time it was the most popular
app in the country. The economic damage is no troll either. Over the course of
2025, Trump placed tariffs on Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan, and South
Korea, often randomlyâor again, whimsicallyâand with no thought to the impact.
He raised tariffs
[https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/business/economy/switzerland-trump-tariffs.html]
on Switzerland because he didnât like the Swiss president, then lowered them
after a Swiss business delegation brought him presents
[https://www.npr.org/2025/11/14/nx-s1-5609341/a-rolex-a-gold-bar-a-trade-deal-and-the-ethics-of-presidential-gifts],
including a gold bar and a Rolex watch. He threatened
[https://apnews.com/article/trump-canada-carney-china-tariffs-5079e910df071b45d2b16949efb8f11a]
to place 100 percent tariffs on Canada should Canada dare to make a trading
agreement with China. Unbothered by possible conflicts of interest, he conducted
trade negotiations with Vietnam, even as his son Eric Trump was breaking ground
on a $1.5 billion golf-course deal
[https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/world/asia/trump-vietnam-golf-project.html]
in that country. [From the April 2025 issue: The Trump world order
[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/04/trump-maga-national-interest-usaid-destruction/681735/]]
Europeans might have tolerated the invective and even the trade damage had it
not been for the real threat that Trump now poses to their security. Over the
course of 14 months, he has, despite talking of peace, encouraged Russian
aggression. He stopped sending military and financial aid to Ukraine, thereby
giving Putin renewed hope of victory. His envoy, Steve Witkoff, began openly
negotiating business deals
[https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/russia-u-s-peace-business-ties-4db9b290]
between the United States and Russia, although the war has not ended and the
Russians have never agreed to a cease-fire. Witkoff presents himself to European
leaders as a neutral figure, somewhere between NATO and Russiaâas if, again, the
United States were not the founder and leader of NATO, and as if European
security were of no special concern to Americans. Trump himself continues to
lash out at Zelensky and to lie about American support for Ukraine, which he
repeatedly describes as worth $300 billion or more. The real number
[https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5239621] is closer to $50
billion, over three years. At current rates, Trump will spend that much in three
months in the Middle East, in the course of starting a war rather than trying to
stop one. The result: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has declared that
Canada will not participate in the âoffensive operations of Israel and the U.S.,
and it never will.â German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius says, âThis is not
our war, and we didnât start it.â The Spanish prime minister refused to let the
United States use bases for the beginning of the war. The U.K. and France might
send some ships to protect their own bases or allies in the Gulf, but neither
will send their soldiers or sailors into offensive operations started without
their assent. This isnât cowardice. Itâs a calculation: If allied leaders
thought that their sacrifice might count for something in Washington, they might
choose differently. But most of them have stopped trying to find the hidden
logic behind Trumpâs actions, and they understand that any contribution they
make will count for nothing. A few days or weeks later, Trump will not even
remember that it happened. â From The Atlantic [https://www.theatlantic.com/]
via this RSS feed [https://www.theatlantic.com/feed/all/]
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