President Trump's penchant for pummeling allies while pampering adversaries was perversely apparent in the last two weeks.
In the run up to the G-7 summit in Quebec with Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan � he began a bizarre trade war with most of them (a war that will hurt U.S. workers and companies). He waged ugly phone and twitter spats with French president Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
But when it came to America's adversaries Trump was in full suck-up mode. Before leaving for Quebec, he opined that Russia should be part of the G-7 meeting. (Never mind that Vladimir Putin was dropped from the group after Russia invaded Ukraine). Trump also gave Beijing a huge gift � dropping sanctions against a Chinese telecom company that had threatened U.S. security. And the president suggested he might invite North Korea's Kim Jong Un to the White House.
"We seem to want to punish our allies and befriend our enemies," said Kentucky Republican Senator Bob Corker. Which raises the question of why the president is clearly more comfortable dealing with autocrats than with America's democratic partners and friends. The question is far from academic since the president's blinkered behavior plays right into the autocrats' hands.
Indeed, how can you explain Trump's behavior toward Canada, our most intimate neighbor and second largest trading partner (almost equal to China) with whom we share language, history, values and a peaceful border? While there are trade disputes between our two countries, the overall balance of trade in goods and services is positive in America's favor.
"The idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the United States is quite frankly insulting and unacceptable," Trudeau told NBC last week. Yet in a testy phone call with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump quipped, "didn't you guys burn down the White House?" referring to the War of 1812. Of course, as usual, Trump had his facts wrong � it was the Brits who burned the White House.
But for Trump, infuriating allies with fake facts is just another day in the office. The cost of this bullying behavior will likely be so high to U.S. workers and companies that it has sparked a bipartisan effort to legislatively block this improper use of "security threat" to start a trade war. However, the damage has been done. As the Toronto Star wrote, "His (Trump's) erratic, hostile behaviour toward the United States' traditional allies is undermining Washington's credibility around the world."
More to the point, this trumped up trade war is symptomatic of the president's cavalier attitude towards countries that share America's democratic values. It's not just that Trump has repeatedly denigrated NATO and the European Union. It's not just that he rejects efforts to curb climate change, and abandoned the Iran nuclear deal, despite intense efforts by European leaders to work out a tougher joint approach towards Iran. It's not just that he had a very ugly phone call last week with Macron, who has tried hard to be friendly, when the French leader tried to critique Trump's tariff stand.
What worries U.S. allies most is that Trump has made it clear he favors Europe's populist parties of the far right, that stir up fear and division, over traditional democratic parties. And he favors autocrats like Putin over democrats like Merkel and Macron.
Just last week, Trump's newly appointed Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, a former Fox news commentator, stirred up immense anger by saying it was "his goal to "empower" anti-establishment conservative forces in Europe. This was taken as a direct challenge to German Chancellor Angela Merkel (a conservative but not a populist).
When the German government protested, the Trump administration backed Grenell.
No one benefits more from Trump's disdain for onetime Western partners than Putin. Trump's insistence that Putin should be at the G-is an unreciprocated, gift to Moscow. So is talk of a summit with Putin- unless Trump bluntly confronts the Russian leader about his cyber espionage in Europe and the United States.
Trump has displayed little taste for pushing back against strongmen with whom he holds summits. Witness the dropped tariffs against China's ZTE telecom company. "#ZTE is a much greater national security threat than steel from..Europe," tweeted Florida's GOP Sen. Marco Rubio.
Yet Trump was willing to this favor for Xi Jinping when he wouldn't drop tarrifs for Trudeau.
So what motivates Trump's love for autocrats? He clearly feels more comfortable with them than he does with Western democratic leaders. They can act solo (and don't have to worry about rule of law, a Trump dream as we saw last week). He thinks he can do great deals with them.
On the contrary. As he drives away his democratic alliances he is making Putin and Xi stronger (and undermining any chance of truly ridding North Korea of all its nuclear weapons.) And he leaves himself alone without allies. He may prefer the axis of autocrats to the G-7 but he can never become a full member of their club.
