Words & Phrases

Trump, to his mind, doesn’t need no stinkin’ allies

The U.S. senator most responsible for allowing Donald Trump to escape conviction in his second impeachment (thereby returning the leader of an insurrection to the presidency) is mighty upset that Trump — shocker! — is trashing the most important American alliance.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY.), even before Trump announced he would slap new tariffs on NATO countries (triggering an emergency meeting of our European allies and exacerbating Americans’ affordability crisis), went to the floor to rip Trump’s threats to take Greenland by force if necessary. “Unless and until the President can demonstrate otherwise, then the proposition at hand today is very straightforward: incinerating the hard-won trust of loyal allies in exchange for no meaningful change in U.S. access to the Arctic,” he said. “That’s allies — plural. Because this is about more than Greenland. It’s about more than America’s relationship with its highly capable Nordic allies.” He added, “It’s about whether the United States intends to face a constellation of strategic adversaries with capable friends…or commit an unprecedented act of strategic self-harm and go it alone.”

“Ally” is not a concept Trump understands, let alone embraces. Ally, if you prefer the Merriam-Webster definition (“a sovereign or state associated with another by treaty or league”), or the plural “allies” (historic reference to the the free nations that fought together to defeat fascism and construct the post-WWII) denotes mutual respect — you know, the kind when you agree not to conquer one another — cooperation, and shared interests (e.g., keeping Europe whole and free, or maintaining prosperous trade relations).

Photo by RL0919, via Wikimedia Commons

Trump does not buy any of that. He cares nothing about other nations’ sovereignty. (Venezuela is his for the oil; Ukraine should simply give up.) Cooperation, which requires some degree of sacrifice, compromise, and mutuality, is impossible for a pathological narcissist who only seeks to dominate and manipulate others. And Trump’s interests — personal enrichment, a sphere of influence akin to 19^th century imperialism, and destruction of liberal democracies — are at odds with the aims that have bound us to Europe, such as shared national security, promotion of human rights, and support for democracy.

Put differently, we are entering a frightful period in which the United States is poised to go it alone, abuse its power, and act in ways akin to authoritarian aggressors in search of territory (e.g., fascist Italy and Germany in 1930’s-40’s, or Vladimir Putin’s quest to re-establish the Russian Empire.)

Trump is laying waste to a mutually beneficial arrangement that kept the peace between major powers and protected nations’ sovereignty and stability. As historian Robert Kagan told Bill Kristol last month: “[T]he United States is taking advantage of its overwhelming power and abusing it with its own allies. I don’t see how the alliance structure can continue under those circumstances.” The idea that you “can’t simply pass entire peoples and nations back and forth between different masters” has been jettisoned for might makes right.

The post-WWII arrangement allowed the U.S. to avoid major power wars, prosper through the international trading system, and draw on the support of other friendly powers (e.g., NATO’s activating Article V after 9/11). We gained cooperation on everything from IP protection to climate policy to free navigation to checking rogue dictators to combatting Islamic terrorism.

Kagan recently wrote for The Atlantic on the demise of the order that kept the peace and prosperity:

That era is over. Trump has managed in just one year to destroy the American order that was, and he has weakened America’s ability to protect its interests in the world that will be. If Americans thought defending the liberal world order was too expensive, wait until they start paying for what comes next.

Unfortunately, neither McConnell nor other Republicans (including the spineless, hypocritical secretary of state, Marco Rubio) who have talked a great game about NATO, checking international aggression, and democracy have either done nothing or actively enabled destruction of our alliances. Once upon a time, characters like Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) berated Democrats for not checking aggressors more strongly (e.g. doing too little for Ukraine); now they cheer American imperialism and ignore Trump’s psychotic revenge against a world that will not give him sufficient adulation.

This turn to aggression is, at bottom, a moral abomination, as the Catholic Church has so dramatically highlighted. “In 2026 the United States has entered into the most profound and searing debate about the moral foundation for America’s actions in the world since the end of the Cold War,” the three highest U.S. archbishops wrote in a pronouncement of stunning moral clarity. “The events in Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland have raised basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace.” If only Republicans had a sliver of conscience, they might impede Trump’s rampage.

After all, Republicans need not allow Trump to conduct foreign policy by temper tantrum. Congress is not without power. Republicans could work with Democrats to protect our allies and maintain the international world order. Congress could reclaim their Article II tariff power and/or pass War Powers Resolutions (McConnell voted against the last one). Congress could join Democrats to assert the power of the purse to block military operations against any non-aggressor and authorize massive arms assistance to Ukraine. Republicans could cooperate with Democrats in exercising a modicum of oversight (e.g., on extrajudicial killings on the high seas) or fully funding USAID (with a recission prohibition). Instead, Republicans’ responses range from cheerleading to rationalizing to hand-wringing to speeches on the floor with no real action.

Given Republicans’ spinelessness in the face of an imperialistic autocrat, we might as well do away with the concept of “allies” — Trump surely has. Pathological narcissists do not consider other people’s concerns or interests; they are a means to an end of increasing one’s own power and sense of grandeur. The same holds true for Trump on the international stage. As Kagan wrote: “Trump’s megalomania is transforming the United States from international leader into international pariah, and the American people will suffer the consequences for years to come.” His vow to take Greenland because he did not get a Nobel Peace Prize is just the latest evidence of the mad king’s perverse motives, which Republicans refuse to acknowledge. When historic allies cross him, he will cajole, bully, or deploy military force against them. Their only acceptable posture in Trump’s eyes is utter subservience.

Again, so long as Trump raves and Republicans look away, we might as well dispense with the notion that Trump and his cadre of MAGA enablers care anything about “allies.” Unless McConnell and his ex-Cold Warriors want to do something about Trump’s insatiable quest for dominance, they are as much of a danger to American security as Trump.

The result of Republicans’ inaction will be a period of violence, instability, economic self-harm, and shame. Yes, shame. Americans should be ashamed of a foreign policy that rejects mythologized American Exceptionalism in favor of fascist-style aggression, complete with war crimes and suppression of dissent.